Kay
02.06.2021 6:23:16
He told the AP, “I am really happy they finally moved toward the source of the litter. The design, from what I can see, looks pretty good.” here
See full version: Dutch Inventor Demonstrates Device to Remove Plastic from Rivers
He told the AP, “I am really happy they finally moved toward the source of the litter. The design, from what I can see, looks pretty good.” here
cheaper – adj. at a lower price
deflect – v. to keep something, such as a question, from affecting or being directed at a person or thing
Three of the machines have already been deployed to Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. Slat said a fourth is going to the Dominican Republic.
The Interceptor is designed to be secured in rivers. Its nose is shaped to deflect away larger floating objects like tree trunks. The interceptors work by guiding plastic waste into an opening in the front of the devices. The waste is then carried inside the machine where it is dropped into containers. The interceptor sends a text message to local operators that can come and empty it when it is full. here
Viral videos show whales ensnared and sea turtles choking. Studies find some 70 percent of seabirds have ingested the waste. And a photo recently revealed that plastic has found its way to even the deepest reaches of the ocean. Straws, forks, shopping bags, nets and all manner of human detritus seems to be everywhere in what was once the endless, unspoiled sea.
“We must do this. And we will do this.” here
Its target? The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the largest of multiple rotating ocean “gyres” that attract waste like giant drains. The Pacific gyre is a sprawling witches’ brew of man-made flotsam, lost fishing gear and invisible plastic particles, stretching across an area three times the size of France.
A thorny question remains in what will happen to the plastic that is brought back to shore from The Ocean Cleanup’s systems. Slat says he wants to turn it into branded merchandise, but acknowledges that all depends on the quality of the plastic, which remains a mystery. In any case, most of the plastic in the oceans is single-use, Slat argues. “By not making it into anything single-use, you can already reduce the chances of it ending up back in the oceans by 99%,” he says.
But it’s possible that lots of the waste returned to land will have to be carted off to third-party recycling plants and eventually recycled into more single-use plastics that might one day return to the oceans. The task ahead isn’t so much Herculean as Sisyphean.
What was originally envisaged as a large rigid barrier arranged around a central tank for collecting plastic, is today an unmanned, modular system that moves with the currents, naturally gravitating to areas of higher concentration. From the air it looks like a pipeline sitting on the surface of the sea, but beneath the waves lies a 10ft deep ‘skirt,’ which traps plastic accumulated by the current. here
But reducing our addiction to plastic is just one half of the equation, Slat says. “These garbage patches won’t go away by themselves. Even if we were to close the tap today the plastic would still be there in 100 years.”
The idea grabbed imaginations around the world. In 2015, an early prototype of System 001 was featured on TIME’s list of the best inventions of 2015. The project has come a long way since then, Slat says. “It takes a trained eye to see the similarities.” here
Slat sees his mission as a race against time. Plastic gradually breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces called microplastics which can eventually enter the food chain. Currently, however, just 8% of the plastic mass in the Pacific garbage patch is microplastics, according to research carried out by The Ocean Cleanup published in the journal Scientific Reports. “But of course what’s going to happen over the next few decades is that all the other 92% of plastic will be turned into microplastics as well,” Slat says. “So the sooner we get it out, the better.”
This self-sufficient mobility is what sets Slat's proposal apart from others. “The speed the plastic arrives at our moving systems is substantially lower than at a fixed structure,” The Ocean Cleanup notes, “having a positive impact on our systems' capture efficiency.” Once collected, the trash will be picked up by ships and returned to land to be properly recycled.
So, how does it work? According to The Ocean Cleanup, the system consists of a U-shaped screen and a floater made of high-density polyethylene. The screen traps garbage as small as 1 centimeter, while the anchor-like floater keeps the system buoyant and allows it to drift with natural systems of ocean currents called gyres. here
Situated between California and Hawaii, this problematic patch covers 600,000 square miles of the ocean in refuse. Annually, it results in the deaths of over 100,000 animals across 700 species, who confuse small pieces of plastic trash for food and become tangled in discarded nets, fishing lines, and other litter. [links]
In addition to its direct effects on sea life, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch affects humans, too. “Once plastic enters the marine food web, there is a possibility that it will contaminate the human food chain as well,” The Ocean Cleanup, Slat's foundation, explains. Additionally, “efforts to clean and eradicate ocean plastic have also caused significant financial burdens,” making the simplicity of Slat's plan even more appealing.
In 2015, an ambitious inventor named Boyan Slat designed a device that promised to rid the ocean of litter by prompting it to clean itself. He was only 20 years old at the time. Three years (and a whole lot of data) later, Slat's invention is ready to tackle the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a vortex of floating trash in the North Pacific Ocean. [links]
Starting in the San Francisco Bay, Slat will launch “the largest cleanup in history” this July. He hopes to eventually eradicate all ocean debris, with his sights set on a plastic-free 2050.