SIGN UP FOR OUR By Wendy Anders
Technology to clean the ocean of trash being developed by The Ocean Cleanup.
The Ocean Cleanup concluded its first-ever reconnaissance flight over ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ this week, the group reported on their website.
Founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat when he was 17, The Ocean Cleanup is a Dutch Foundation developing advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. Slat is the youngest-ever recipient of UN’s highest environment award.
The information gathered during the flight this week is critical to planning a clean-up of the largest of the world’s five main ocean trash gyres or trash collection sites.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the plastic accumulation zone between Hawaii and California is several million square kilometres in size and is where 1/3 of all oceanic plastic is concentrated, said The Ocean Cleanup.
The expedition aims to accurately measure the biggest and most harmful debris in the patch. This is an essential milestone in preparation for the cleanup of the patch, scheduled to begin before the end of the decade.
For the development of a cleanup technology, it is essential to quantify the dimensions of the individual objects and the plastic accumulation as a whole. The nature and amount of the debris determine the design of cleanup systems, the logistics of hauling plastic back to shore, the methods for recycling plastic, and the costs of the cleanup, said The Ocean Cleanup in a press release.
After a study of the site in August 2015 which employed about 30 vessels that crossed the patch simultaneously to measure and sample the debris, the group discovered that the amount of large debris had been heavily underestimated.
Quantifying the number of items such as discarded fishing nets many meters in diameter and other very large debris was the last piece of the puzzle needed for refining the clean-up plan.
Data collected during the flights this week will be analyzed and presented in a peer-reviewed scientific paper expected to be published early 2017, said The Ocean Clean-up.
Boyan Slat, CEO and founder of The Ocean Cleanup said, “The Aerial Expedition – our final reconnaissance mission – brings us another step closer to the cleanup of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The initial findings of the expeditions again underline the urgency to tackle the growing accumulation of plastic in the world’s oceans.”
