To wrap up our mini-series on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, let us now discuss about what is being done to solve this problem.
Many experts believe that it is completely impossible to clean up the patch. This however, does not dissuade some from attempting to try. Boyan Slat, founder of The Ocean Cleanup, is one such individual who aims to completely eradicate the garbage patch. The Ocean Cleanup has invested $32 million in 2019 in researching and planning on how to achieve that goal. Early ocean trials has shown mixed results (Gibbens, 2020).
Here is a video explaining The Ocean Cleanup’s plans:
“The fleet is expected to clean up 50% percent of the great pacific garbage patch every 5 years”.
Even if they achieve just a fraction of those expectations, they would still be able to clean up a massive amount! While this is most certainly a fantastic idea (if feasible), it is still important to remember that the responsibility of buying products generated from ocean-retrieved plastics falls on us consumers! Only if we consumers put our dollar votes into sustaining this project economically, can this project and other such projects hope to attain their goals of cleaning the ocean!
While it is all fine and dandy to imagine the best, it is important to consider if such methods would even work out!
Firstly, the size, the magnitude and the remoteness of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch makes it highly impractical to clean it. Considering the magnitude, a fleet of ships would need to be deployed for an extended period of time to remove plastics and other garbage at the surface of the water (Martini and Goldstein, 2014), while ignoring the large amounts of microplastics and other trash that is far below the surface.
The size, location, and extensive nature of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch makes cleaning it impractical. A large number of ships would need to work for an entire year to eliminate only a fraction of the plastic from the water. Because clean-up is infeasible, experts focus their efforts on prevention of additional accumulation of plastic in the garbage patches. Avoiding the use of plastic whenever possible can also help reduce the garbage patches (Wolff, 2020).
Furthermore, there is an issue with what is to be done with all the waste collected. Recycling all the waste would already be a financial and technical feat! Just to recycle even a small percentage of the waste collected is quite complex (Awoyera and Adesina, 2020) and would already require a sizable amount of logistics, energy and other resources (Hahladakis and Iacovidou, 2019). Furthermore, not all plastic can be recycled. Perhaps more work could be done by pushing our societies to adopt a zero waste economy – if this even possible (Zwier, Blok, Lemmens and Geerts, 2015).
What do you think? Are these suggested solutions feasible? Do you think there will be any other side-effects or negative impacts? Is all these effort and capital worth the benefits? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
Reference:
Awoyera, P. and Adesina, A., 2020. Plastic wastes to construction products: Status, limitations and future perspective. Case Studies in Construction Materials, 12, p.e00330.
Gibbens, S., 2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/oceans/reference/pacific-ocean/> [Accessed 19 July 2020].
Hahladakis, J. and Iacovidou, E., 2019. An overview of the challenges and trade-offs in closing the loop of post-consumer plastic waste (PCPW): Focus on recycling. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 380, p.120887.
Martini, K. and Goldstein, M., 2014. The ocean cleanup, part 2: Technical review of the feasibility study. Deep Sea News.
Wolff, K., 2020. Gyre Plastic: Science, Circulation And The Matter Of The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Ph.D. University of California, San Diego.
Zwier, J., Blok, V., Lemmens, P. and Geerts, R., 2015. The Ideal of a Zero-Waste Humanity: Philosophical Reflections on the Demand for a Bio-Based Economy. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 28(2), pp.353-374.
