Rodriguez, O. R. (n.d.). Massive Boom Hopes to Corral Pacific Ocean’s Plastic Trash. Retrieved November 17, 2018, from https://www.usnews.com/news/news/articles/2018-09-08/massive-boom-will-corral-pacific-oceans-plastic-trash
In this article by Olga Rodriguez she explains how scientists in San Francisco have just deployed a huge two thousand foot long boom to collect trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The boom was created by a 24 year old scientist from the Netherlands who was inspired to create a solution to plastic pollution when he went scuba diving and saw more plastic than fish. The boom is a ten foot deep u-shaped screen that is shallow enough to allow marine life to escape, but deep enough to trap the trillions of pieces of plastic in between California and Hawaii. It will be used to corral all the trash so ships can be scoop out the garbage and return it to land. Periodically the ship will return to land where the plastic can be recycled. The goal of this project is to remove fifty percent of the trash in the garbage patch in 5 years. In the future they plan to add more ships to the fleet if the boom is successful.
I hope this works because plastic pollution in the ocean is a huge issue, however, this will not fix the plastic pollution problem. The main issue is that we continue to pollute the ocean with millions of tons of trash every year, mainly in the form of single use plastics and fishing gear. If we don’t stop the problem at its roots then trying to rid the ocean of plastic will be an impossible task. If we are able to reduce the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by fifty percent the fish and other wildlife that used to inhabit those waters might be able to return again. This Gyre is the largest garbage patch at twice the size of Texas and has displaced many species. It has created a dead zone because the water is so toxic and filed with micro plastics that clog gills and make it impossible for marine animals to breathe. If this seemingly simple solution works then it could be implemented across the globe in all of the five garbage patches and could save the lives of countless animals.
I read about this! The best part about this is that the person who came up with it is so young! 24?! That gives so much hope for the future because of how many young people care about the environment.
I know right! I think our generation cares much more about the environment and hopefully that will mean meaningful change in the future! We are the future of the planet after all!
It’s horrible that there’s so much plastic in the ocean, and I really hope this makes a difference. Do you know of any other plans to clean plastic out of the ocean similar to this one?
I think there have been a few small missions trying to clean up parts of the garbage patch, but nothing like this has happened ever before. Most of the effort is on the reduction and ban on single use plastics on land. I think that is great because we need to stop the plastic from it’s source, but at the same time the plastic already in the ocean will just sit there if we don’t remove it. Here is an article by Nat Geo that gives me a lot of hope for the future (demise) of plastic ! 🙂 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/07/ocean-plastic-pollution-solutions/