How Do You Cleanup the Ocean? With a Long Arm

Imagine an area roughly 3 times the size of the City of Toronto (2000 km²). Now cover it with ankle deep trash. That’s how much plastic experts estimate is entering our oceans on average each year - 8 million tonnes.

To put it another way, “The quantity entering the ocean is equal to about five plastic grocery bags full of plastic for every foot of coastline in the world” (Jenna Jambeck, 2015).

People of Earth - we have a MASSIVE problem on our hands! There is trash in our oceans. A LOT of it, and it’s increasingly becoming a problem here at home, and around the world. You may be familiar with the trash that washes up on beaches, litters the tree line or is found in a landfill, but there is a greater store of trash that most of us have never and will never see: the five major ocean gyres.

In oceanography terms, gyres are large systems of rotating ocean currents. They are created by the consistent flow of the oceans currents around the globe, which are themselves driven by the rotation of the earth and strong winds.

These currents are perfect avenues to transport trash which comes from both land and sea. This trash concentrates together in the gyres, to form giant concentrated garbage patches. They are full of ocean plastic and particles, chemical sludge and other debris that have been trapped by the currents.

When plastic enters the ocean, it starts to break down due to a process known as photodegradation. The plastic starts to break down into smaller and smaller pieces in the presence of the sun. It might also be small to begin with, such as microbeads or the fibres that come from synthetic clothing. Due to the chemical composition of plastics, many are non-biodegradable and can remain in the environment for decades. The waste leaches toxins into the water, and can capture new ones such as pesticides from it. Plastic floating in the water can be much more toxic than the water surrounding it.

Consumption of this plastic can have dire consequences for aquatic organisms such as fish and birds that mistake the toxic waste for food. Ocean plastic pollution is having negative effects on many aquatic species. This prevents a challenge for conservation.

It also presents a challenge for humans, who rely on wild fish caught from the ocean for food. Toxic plastic waste has been found in the bellies of whales, fish and birds. Trash has also been observed to be washing up on beaches around the world, where it pollutes natural environments close to home and is costly to clean up.

Ocean Cleanup: Engineering a Solution

Clearly we have a big problem on our hands. But what are we doing about it?

While it may not be THE solution, a young engineer from the Netherlands has a plan and he’s putting it into action. The project is called the Ocean Cleanup and was proposed and developed  by 21 year old engineer Boyan Slat. Check out his concept TedX talk here.

Intrigued? So were we.

His goals are ambitious - for example, cleaning up to a projected 42% of garbage from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Gyre in 10 years. The goal of Ocean Cleanup is to extract, intercept and prevent plastic pollution. He plans on doing this by allowing the natural ocean currents to bring the trash to him. Or more accurately to the floating boom and platform rig that the team proposes to anchor to the seabed in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Boyan Slat says that he was inspired after scuba diving in Greece as a teenager, where he saw “more plastic bags than fish.” His question: What are we doing to clean this up?

What he found wasn’t inspiring, so he started a science project. Today, it has grown into an organization with vision - over 25 staff members, 100+ volunteers and a full-scale pilot model that is set to launch in Japan this year.

His design is a network of long, floating barriers called booms, arranged in the shape of a ‘V’ (1). As the gyres currents rotate, it is anticipated that they will pass under the screens, leaving lighter-than-water plastics at the surface for the booms to pick up (2). Ocean Cleanup says this will also have the effect of keeping all neutrally buoyant (i.e. plankton, zooplankton, etc) out of the plastic collection screens. The shape of the booms will funnel collected plastics towards the centre of the structure for storage (3). Eventually it can be transported to land for proper disposal.

While the idea has been not without its critics, it is an ‘outside the box’ approach to removing plastic waste from the ocean and a definite step in the right direction. While there is no denying that the real solution is stopping the plastic BEFORE it gets to the ocean, cleaning up the trash that’s already there is important, too. What’s more, Slat plans on continuing to develop the technology so that it may be used in river outlets, harbours, ports and other big sources of ocean plastic pollution. Keep up the great work Ocean Cleanup!

Follow @OceanCleanup on Twitter for the most recent updates and behind the scenes look at the development of the prototype they are releasing in Japan this year!

We Can Help, Too

1. Create less plastic waste by using reusable bags and tupperware, be aware of and recycling and disposing of waste properly.
2. Get involved in a local Shoreline Cleanup event or organize your own!
3. Volunteer with organizations such as Ocean Cleanup, your local aquarium or environmental NGOs to learn more, get involved, and raise awareness.