Written by Corinne Newman
For this final blog in the plastics series, I wanted to leave off on a positive note. In this blog, I wanted to go more in-depth about one of the many organizations that are actively working to make a difference in this ever-growing issue of plastics in our environment. The Ocean Clean Up Project was mentioned in a previous blog that talked about some of the solutions being currently worked on. But let’s learn more about the amazing efforts that this organization is making.
Previously we talked about a few of The Ocean Clean Up Project’s inventions, focusing on their “Interceptor Solutions”. That is, their solutions to stop plastic from flowing out of rivers and into the ocean in the first place. They have created several working systems for this and are constantly observing their systems to look for places to innovate and create even better methods. You can see this in the progress of their current solutions. They started with their “high-tech” solution called the “Interceptor Original”. This is a larger boat-like device that is able to collect and scoop out pollution from the water. It uses solar power and smart processing to make it more autonomous. After the creation of this, the need for lower-tech solutions that could be made quicker and cheaper could have become evident, leading to the creation of the “Interceptor Barrier” that we have covered previously, and its companion equipment the “Interceptor tender” that is able to scoop up the pollution that the barrier collects.
Preventing more plastics from ending up in the ocean is important, but cleaning up the plastic that is already circulating it is also deeply needed. The Ocean Clean Up Project is living up to its name by doing just that. In order to help clean up the large garbage patches that exist, such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the Ocean Clean Up Project has created a system that mimics a coastline in order to collect all the trash in one spot for less complex extraction. The way it works is by having two boats that are tugging a long U-shaped barrio move at relative speed of the flow of the trash in order to force all the plastics pollution on the surface to collect near the retention zone at the base of the U. After the trash is in the retention zone, the netting for the retention zone is detached, carefully to avoid losing as much plastic as possible, and the trash that is there is dumped onto a boat for transfer.
Not only does the Ocean Clean UP Project do great work in picking up the plastics, but they also work hard to properly recycle them in order to avoid them returning to the ocean again. They have been working hard to make amazing products with the plastics they collect. Making things such as glass frames that they then sell. The profits of the sale go back to the organization to continue their efforts.