The Ocean Cleanup

The Ocean Cleanup is developing world’s first feasible method to rid the oceans of plastic. The Ocean Cleanup’s goal is to extract, prevent, and intercept plastic pollution by initiating the largest cleanup in history.
The Ocean Cleanup Plan So Crazy It Just Might Work
The largest marine cleanup project in history is set to launch early next year. The goal: Get rid of half the plastic garbage currently in the oceans. It’s bold, it’s ambitious, and it’s popular with the media (although less so with scientists). But will it work?
Julie Dugdale, Outside Online, 7/21/16

Dutch engineering student Boyan Slat shocked the environmental community when he announced in a 2012 TEDx talk that he had invented a way for the oceans to rid themselves of plastic with minimal human intervention.

After all, we’re funneling a jaw-dropping 8 million tons of the stuff into the oceans each year, in addition to the more than five trillion pieces of plastic garbage already swirling in the waters. Could a then-17-year-old really have found a simple solution to this massive problem?

Many environmentalists didn’t think so, but Slat’s idea was nonetheless intriguing. He proposed building a stationary array with floating barriers that would filter and collect floating plastic using the ocean’s natural currents.

Read more… Outside Online

 

Similar Posts

  • | |

    NOAA Marine Debris Program

    NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION MARINE DEBRIS PROGRAM (NOAA) The NOAA Marine Debris Program is the U.S. Federal government’s lead for addressing marine debris. The NOAA Marine Debris Program has developed a strategic plan to help us succeed in continuing to combat marine debris in the coming years. Read more… The Marine Debris Clearinghouse is…

  • The Last Plastic Straw

    500 million straws are used and discarded every day in the US alone. That’s 175 billion a year filtering into landfills and littering the oceans. Join a global movement to eliminate plastic drinking straws from our landfills, our streams, our oceans, and our beaches! The Last Plastic Straw strives to educate the public about the absurdity of…

  • |

    The Plastic Debris Project

    Eliminating Land-based Discharges Of Marine Debris In California: A Plan of Action from The Plastic Debris Project The Plastic Debris, Rivers to Sea Project seeks to minimize the land-based discharges of marine debris. Just like ocean-based marine debris, land-based discharges of human-made debris are comprised mostly of plastics. https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/42231824/eliminating-land-based-discharges-of-marine-debris-in-california- The threat and impacts of marine…

  • |

    Litterati

    Litterati: Cleaning our planet one piece at a time. A global community identifying, mapping and collecting the world’s litter. This digital landfill is accomplished by individuals posting photos on Instagram. 1) Find a piece of litter 2) Photo w/ Instagram 3) Add “#Litterati” 4) Throw out/recycle litter.  Join us. www.litterati.org  

  • | |

    Algalita Marine Research and Education

    Algalita is a pioneering environmental nonprofit that’s been at the forefront of the fight against plastic pollution for nearly three decades. They were the first to uncover and publicize the massive accumulation of plastic in the Pacific Ocean—what’s now widely called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Since that discovery, they’ve focused on reshaping how the…

  • |

    Scripps Institution of Oceanography

    Revisiting SEAPLEX, 4/15/15 Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition: Seeking the Science of the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch, A thousand miles off California, the North Pacific Ocean Gyre contains one of the largest ecosystems on Earth – but it may be in danger from a deluge of accumulated plastic trash. Dubbed the “Great Pacific Ocean…