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troutman · 07-07-2015, 09:21 AM

19 Year Old Develops Machine To Clean The Oceans Of Plastic

http://www.iflscience.com/environmen...oceans-plastic

An organization called The Ocean Cleanup, founded by 19-year-old Boyan Slat, believe that they may have a viable solution to cleanup ocean trash. Following a year-long study involving extensive scientific research, the organization has recently released a feasibility report which concludes that their novel method to remove plastic from the oceans is both technically and financially viable. Furthermore, if employed, computer models predict that within ten years they could reduce the plastic within the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which has been previously deemed impossible to cleanup, by almost 50%.

How does it work? Their method exploits natural ocean currents and winds which passively transport garbage towards a collection platform. Solid floating barriers are then used to catch and concentrate the trash from the ocean, negating the risk of wildlife entanglement and vertebrate bycatch which are problems with other techniques such as nets.

Cleanup projects unfortunately don’t come cheap, and the team estimate that this will cost €31.7 million per year (around $43 million). While this may sound dramatic, according to the report it’s actually around 33 times cheaper than other conventional cleanup methods that have been proposed to deal with the problem. But to minimize costs, The Ocean Cleanup is outsourcing most of the fundamental research to institutes and is also collaborating with various companies. In order to implement the next stage of the project, which will involve large-scale operational pilots, the company is now crowdsourcing $2 million.

07-07-2015, 09:21 AM	#6
troutman Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Crowsnest Pass Exp:	19 Year Old Develops Machine To Clean The Oceans Of Plastic http://www.iflscience.com/environmen...oceans-plastic An organization called The Ocean Cleanup, founded by 19-year-old Boyan Slat, believe that they may have a viable solution to cleanup ocean trash. Following a year-long study involving extensive scientific research, the organization has recently released a feasibility report which concludes that their novel method to remove plastic from the oceans is both technically and financially viable. Furthermore, if employed, computer models predict that within ten years they could reduce the plastic within the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which has been previously deemed impossible to cleanup, by almost 50%. How does it work? Their method exploits natural ocean currents and winds which passively transport garbage towards a collection platform. Solid floating barriers are then used to catch and concentrate the trash from the ocean, negating the risk of wildlife entanglement and vertebrate bycatch which are problems with other techniques such as nets. Cleanup projects unfortunately don’t come cheap, and the team estimate that this will cost €31.7 million per year (around $43 million). While this may sound dramatic, according to the report it’s actually around 33 times cheaper than other conventional cleanup methods that have been proposed to deal with the problem. But to minimize costs, The Ocean Cleanup is outsourcing most of the fundamental research to institutes and is also collaborating with various companies. In order to implement the next stage of the project, which will involve large-scale operational pilots, the company is now crowdsourcing $2 million.