Everyday somewhere between 30-50K tonnes of plastic are dumped in our oceans. That's a staggering 11-12 million tonnes annually.
Dutch inventor Boyan Slat, the founder of The Ocean Cleanup, thinks we can tackle the brunt of plastic pollution in the oceans over the next 15 years for a mere £1BN...
His strategy is very simple: it rests on firstly knowing the source of a good chunk of this plastic pollution, and about a third of it comes from just 30 cities in mainly middle income countries where the plastic trash collection mechanisms can't keep up with the amount of plastic waste generated.
Interceptors and Barriers...
Slat's plan starts with rivers, with installing barriers to stop and scoop any plastic waste en-route, this would be semi-autonomous.
And ths plan extends to scooping up 'legacy waste' also - that's the stuff floating in our oceans ATM and piling up on our beaches...
Pie in the Sky...?
Tech solutions to environmental problems sound dreamy - we can just carry on as usual and tech fixes all, but the problem is 'business as usual' here means a HUGE increase in plastic production - the OECD predicts it'll treble by 2060, and one has to ask whether the tech and the above budget can keep up...?
These tech solutions do nothing at all do alter the demand for plastics, which is what is driving the supply, what we ALSO need is a lot of work on generating alternatives to plastics and reducing the use of plastics in the first place!
The project might also run into difficulties with getting those barriers in rivers, local authorities in the UK for example aren't blessed with competence and efficiency to say the least!
Final Thoughts
I'm all for big tech solutions, but one has to realise they probably aren't going to solve all of our pollution problems, we need some degree of social change too probably.
Yes it is apparently estimated 80% comes from less than 10 rivers mainly in Asia. I think plenty could be done if countries or organizations wanted too. Instead of wasting all the funds with crooked NGO's rather send it through to companies who would do the clean ups where the ocean currents have conveniently gathered it all together.
There is actually another alternative for plastic waste and garbage: the bacterium Sporosarcina pasteurii (formerly known as Bacillus pasteurii) could be used to induce the precipitation of calcium carbonate by producing the enzyme urease. Simply put, it triggers a chemical process that acts as a biological cement, capable of solidifying sand, plastic, and other materials. Essentially, by petrifying plastic and garbage, we prevent it from continuing to pollute the oceans and prevent animals from suffering plastic poisoning.
And since it is a bacterium, it can be mass-produced as needed. It literally has no limitations compared to other technologies.
Part of the problem is that we generate so much plastic and much of it is used for packaging that is not used for long. Governments have been slow to do much about it. We are able to send most of ours to recycling these days, but that will not be the case in many places. One of my kids have worked on technology for dealing with plastic waste, but that needs to be scaled up. There is already so much in the environment and the food chain. We probably all have some in our bodies and that's scary.
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