Whilst seeing all these horrible, depressing images of polluted seas and entangled wildlife, there are amazing people out there really trying to make a change.
A young Dutch entrepreneur, Boyan Slat has been studying ways to deal with this problem in our oceans. Slat says he was diving in Greece in 2011 when he saw more plastic bags in the sea than fish. He found it alarming, he says “Everyone said to me: ‘Oh there’s nothing you can do about plastic once it gets into the oceans,’ and I wondered whether that was true.” He saw this challenge and has been striving to find a solution.
He has won several prizes for his research and designs including Best Technical Design 2012 at the Delft University of Technology. Slat has gone onto develop his ideas further and founded The Ocean Cleanup in 2013. He has designed the Coastal Pilot a 2000-meter boom that by using natural wave action, herds the plastic debris into a central receptacle.
Aerial view design of Coastal Pilot
These massive Ocean garbage patches are vast but dispersed. The booms act like an artificial coastline, and the plastics are concentrated together. This action is powered 100% by natural ocean currents.
Below is a chart of what needs to be done and where they are on it currently.
To read more about the work The Ocean Cleanup are doing click here
Here is the Ted talk Boyan Slat gave about cleaning up the oceans.
“19-Year-Old Student Develops Ocean Cleanup Array That Could Remove 7,250,000 Tons Of Plastic From the World’s Oceans | Inhabitat – Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building.” Inhabitat | Design For a Better World!. Accessed May 23, 2016. http://inhabitat.com/19-year-old-student-develops-ocean-cleanup-array-that-could-remove-7250000-tons-of-plastic-from-the-worlds-oceans/.
“An aerial overview of the trash-collecting boom.” The Ocean Cleanup. n.d. http://mentalfloss.com/article/64630/20-year-old-invented-new-way-clean-oceans.
“E 02 Boyan Slat Beyond the Horizon Directed by Jared Leto.” YouTube. n.d. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M4vIPr98gM.
The Ocean Cleanup, Developing Technologies to Extract, Prevent and Intercept Plastic Pollution. Accessed May 23, 2016. http://www.theoceancleanup.com/.
“Solution to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” YouTube. n.d. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljrbtYlku-k.
Quote taken from:
“The Dutch Boy Mopping Up a Sea of Plastic.” BBC News. Accessed , 2016. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29631332.
synthetic nature 