The Ocean Cleanup. (2023, July 7). Introducing the Interceptor Barricade: The Ocean Cleanup returns to Guatemala. Retrieved August 14, 2023, from https://theoceancleanup.com/updates/introducing-the-interceptor-barricade-the-ocean-cleanup-returns-to-guatemala/
In 2023, the Ocean Cleanup, an organization dedicated to the removal of plastic in oceans, visited Guatemala because hurricanes there historically have forced immense amounts of trash to flow through rivers into the ocean. In order to prevent this, they made a barrier for the Rio Las Vacas river, which flows into the Caribbean sea, called the Interceptor Barricade. This barricade was a bunch of floating booms that captured the plastic but allowed the water to flow through. Once the trash was collected, they passed it onto the local waste management authority who sorted and recycled the collected waste.
This article describes an organization’s attempt to clean up the environment by preventing trash from entering the ocean. Once in the ocean, the removal of trash can be very difficult and often too late, since it could have already harmed animals and the environment, so I think it’s strategic and beneficial to attempt to prevent the trash instead of attempting to remove it. A large part of environmental science is studying how to better the environment and this article stimulates that by providing an example of people attempting to clean up the ocean.
Jordan- you are super right to hone in on prevention of plastic getting into the ocean in the first place, which you’d think would be easier and cheaper than cleaning the ocean. This is a great example of an externalized cost because you can imagine the producers of the plastic, and the consumers, aren’t funding Ocean Cleanup’s organization. Did the article comment on how successful this method of using booms was? Is this technology something that could be scaled and used in other places too? Or are there some shortcomings with it?
Great job with the well written abstract!
Hi! Thanks for reading my work. Since the event took place so recently the article did not mention how successful this specific experiment was. It did mention, however, that other experiments using the same technique ended up being very successful. This technology could definitely be scaled and is already being used in other places around the world. Since it has been accessible in other places I do not see any current shortcomings.