BREATHING LIFE INTO THE OCEAN

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The dire state of our oceans due to plastic pollution, and the relentless efforts of the Ocean Cleanup Project to make it clean again.


 

The sound of a garbage truck turning off the road is followed by the smell of rot, its brakes wheezing, and its engine growling. The vehicle makes a brief stop before reversing and honking its way down a boat launch. It stops, opens its tailgate, and dumps its cargo of cups, straws, bottles, shopping bags, fishing buoys, and nets while saline water laps at its rear tires. A minute later, this plastic waste is floating away on a journey to pollute the ocean and poison the food chain. Another truck that is getting ready to back down the ramp is passed by the garbage truck as it departs. And then there was yet another garbage truck, one in a never-ending line, rolling into the marina to drop its own load of plastics.

Admittedly, this is not actually what is happening in its literal sense, but more of a dramatisation of the extent to which we are polluting our oceans. Each year, eight million tonnes of plastic – or one garbage truck’s worth per minute – find their way into the ocean. Plastic pollution is one of humanity’s biggest problems. For decades vast amounts of plastic have been entering our oceans through polluted streams and rivers. This plastic waste destroys the habitat of billions of marine creatures. Worryingly, the rate of plastic pollution is rising. Without intervention, the amount of plastic floating in the water has been projected to double. Studies suggest that if we carry on as normal, there could be no marine life left by 2050.

Huge expenditures are incurred by society and the environment due to plastic pollution. According to research by Deloitte, up to 1,000,000 seabirds, 100,000 marine animals, and sea turtles perish each year as a result of consuming or being entangled in plastic. Plastic microparticles are making their way up the food chain and into the seafood we consume. Invasive organisms that compete with or prey on native species are transported by plastic waste into the ocean. Deloitte estimated the cost of ocean plastic pollution at USD 6 to 19 billion in a 2018 analysis. Another study estimated the cost of pollution at USD 2.5 trillion a year or USD 33,000 per tonne. Time is ticking, but fortunately, there is a glimmer of hope.

One of the best-known and best-funded efforts, the Ocean Cleanup, is instrumental in recognising not only the size of the ocean plastic problem but also the challenges of cleaning it up. The largest ocean clean-up of all time is currently taking place. Once fully operational, large, autonomous, 100% solar-powered vessels could finally clean our oceans.

Boyan Slat, who was 18 at the time, founded the nonprofit organisation in 2013 with the goal of cleaning up the five gyres, convergence areas in the ocean where trash tends to gather. The infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the North Pacific is Slat’s first target.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a vortex of plastic that flows in a circular direction along with the ocean’s currents. It stretches over an area three times the size of France. The whole garbage patch contains approximately 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic, which is about 250 pieces for every human alive. Even worse, there are another four of these massive garbage patches across the world’s oceans and they are getting bigger. For marine life, this garbage is a complete disaster. Over 800 species of marine life are directly negatively impacted by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which can involve entanglement, ingestion, or damage to their habitat. More than 100 species are threatened by extinction due to plastic pollution.

So why hasn’t anyone tried cleaning up the ocean? This very question was asked by Boyan Slat, the founder of Ocean Cleanup. In 2011, he was scuba diving in Greece and could see more plastic than fish in the ocean. He wanted to do something about it but was only 16 years old at the time. Slat’s breakthrough was when he realised that the clean-up could be done by using the ocean’s currents. “Instead of going after the plastic, you could let the plastic come to you.” He came up with this idea while he was still at school and presented it at a TedX conference in 2012. Sadly, the idea didn’t gain any traction. Instead, he went on to study aerospace engineering at college. After 6 months, his desire to clean the ocean wouldn’t go away, so he dropped out of college and started the Ocean Cleanup on his own, with just 300 dollars in his pocket. In March 2013, things finally took off. His Ted Talk was picked up by news outlets and went viral. He was no longer alone and received USD 90,000 of initial funding. People not only wanted to support Slat with their money but also with their expertise. A hundred scientists and engineers volunteered to look at how much it would take to clean up the ocean and how they would accomplish their mission.


THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH IS A VORTEX OF PLASTIC THAT FLOWS IN A CIRCULAR DIRECTION ALONG WITH THE OCEAN’S CURRENTS. IT STRETCHES OVER AN AREA THREE TIMES THE SIZE OF FRANCE. THE WHOLE GARBAGE PATCH CONTAINS APPROXIMATELY 1.8 TRILLION PIECES OF PLASTIC, WHICH IS ABOUT 250 PIECES FOR EVERY HUMAN ALIVE.


 

In September 2018, The Ocean Cleanup trialled System 001, which was the first ever ocean clean-up system of its kind. System 001 involved taking a 600-meter floater net out into the ocean alongside a 3-meter deep skirt. The floater is durable enough at the top so the plastic cannot float above it, but also deep enough that plastic cannot flow beneath it. The system and the plastic are carried by the ocean’s currents while the plastic gets sucked into its U shape. Along the floater are solar-powered lights, cameras, sensors, and anti-collision systems.

Once this system was launched, they had to simply see if it worked. The sad reality was that this model was not effective enough. Plastic was getting trapped in the system but slipping out as well. On top of that, they found out towards the end that an 18-meter part of the system disconnected and broke. But the bigger problem was why the plastic slipped out. There were so many variables that it was incredibly difficult to track what went wrong. In July 2021, it was time to upgrade the system, and System 002 was launched.

 

 

This time around, the floater was towed at 1.5 knots by two ships at each end. By controlling the speed, they could stop plastic from toppling over. Additionally, the floater was now 800 meters long – one-third bigger than its previous model. Another aim of this system was to track hotspots. A year after its launch, System 002 could be considered somewhat of a success. By July 2022, a major milestone was achieved. It was revealed that they have now extracted 100,000 kg of plastic from the North Pacific Garbage Patch which is roughly the weight of two Boeing 737-800s.

But there is a lot more to do. This is only 0.1% of the entire garbage patch. Although this was celebrated as a huge victory, this took Ocean Cleanup a year to complete. If they repeated the same process every year, it would take 1000 years to clean up the North Pacific Garbage Patch. The patch is three times the size of France and they had only cleaned up something that is 2% the size of Paris. This is why Ocean Cleanup is only just getting started. In response to this milestone, Ocean Cleanup said, “Now our technology is validated, we are ready to move on to our new and expanded System 003, which is expected to capture plastic at a rate potentially 10 times higher than the previous version through a combination of increased size, improved efficiency, and increased uptime.”

System 003 will be three times the size of System 002, and the floater will be roughly 2.4 kilometres in length. Ten of these would be enough to clean the entire Pacific Garbage Patch. Soon, Ocean Cleanup changed the name of System 003 to System 03.

There will be three boats in System 03 – two for holding the system in place and another for collecting the plastic as they go along. All of these boats will continually rotate their positions. Every two weeks, another boat will arrive and replace one of the boats which will sail back to shore. These new boats will also provide new supplies and new crews to the operation.

The sad reality is The Ocean Cleanup project is a reactionary response to human negligence. The project is not a solution to ocean pollution, but rather a wake-up call for humanity to recognise the level of plastic waste we continue to dump every minute. The Ocean Cleanup Project can be considered a success when we no longer need its services.

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