By: Kiran J.
Source: The Ocean Cleanup
Imagine heaping piles of garbage- no, a massive island of garbage floating right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. That’s not what this article is about, in fact, I’m writing about something much worse.
Contrary to what most people think, much of the Great Pacific Garbage patch is made up of microplastics. These microscopic pieces of plastic are created when larger pieces of non-biodegradable plastics are broken down into smaller bits, until they’re barely visible by the naked eye. As a result, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch looks more like a cloudy soup, scattered with some larger, non-biodegradable items, such as fishing equipment. Moreover, National Geographic says that ‘70% of marine debris actually sinks to the bottom of the ocean’, according to oceanographers and ecologists’ recent discoveries.
Some key issues come with this either soupy, or very deep-under-the-surface, mixture of trash. Number one: it’s difficult to see, due to its microscopic size, making it difficult to decide on what location recovery efforts should prioritize. Secondly, it’s difficult to collect. Microplastics are so small, so normal nets aren’t able to scoop them up. On top of this, it’s possible for marine life to be caught in these nets during this process. Alternatively, larger, more dense pieces of trash may sink too deep into the ocean and be too heavy to lift, so they require more advanced equipment to be removed.
So far, one of the most promising efforts to clean up this mess is a system designed by the non-profit The Ocean Cleanup. Their system catches plastics ranging from under a centimeter in size to one-ton ghost nets. The system involves a 600-meter long floater, or buoy, bent in a U-shape, with a three-meter deep skirt attached to it at the bottom. The skirt spans its 600-meter length. Because the majority of the plastics on the surface of the ocean don’t sink too far down, this skirt is effective in collecting trash. The floater has the essential role of keeping the system from sinking, as well as keeping it moving.
Photo from: The Ocean Cleanup
Both the plastic and the floater are carried by the current, however only the floater is affected by the forces of wind and waves, enabling it to move faster than the plastic. As a result, plastic is captured and concentrated in the center of this U shape. It’s free-flowing, so the system can change direction with the wind and will automatically drift to areas with the highest plastic concentration. Finally, a support vessel periodically comes by to collect the captured plastic and recycle it.
The Ocean Cleanup aims to have a fleet of 60 systems and will be deploying their newest, fully operational version of the system this year. They have estimated that their technology will be able to remove 90% of ocean plastic by 2040.
Regardless of our optimistic- and for the first time, realistic- goals, we can’t solely rely on new technology to clean everything up for us, especially when there are a total of five large garbage patches currently growing in our oceans. From the Indian Ocean garbage patch, to the South Atlantic patch, to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, efforts are being made to cut off the source of the growth of these patches: us. No country has wanted to commit to the responsibility for cleaning up our garbage from the ocean because the oceans don’t belong to any one country. It belongs to all of us. Additionally, it would be extremely costly in terms of money and time. Consequently, we’ve had to rely primarily on nonprofits, such as The Ocean Cleanup. However, the simplest action we can all take to help to reduce the amount of plastics in our oceans, and with future prevention of such issues, is to consume products responsibly and dispose of them properly, whether that involves recycling, repurposing or throwing them in the trash.
Discussion Questions:
Look at a map showing the circulation of the oceanic conveyor belt. What continents do you think most of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from?
Do you think The Ocean Cleanup’s systems will affect marine life? How?