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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Every Year We Produce About 300 Million Tons of Plastic, a Portion of Which Enters and Accumulates in the Oceans

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2 CHAPTER 1.1 3 AUTHORS HOW THE OCEANS CAN CLEAN THEMSELVES A FEASIBILITY STUDY 4 5 LIst OF AUTHORS AND AFFILIatIONS PhD. Stephan Koch ETH Zürich, Institute of Geophysics Dr. Tim Landgraf Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany Ir. Remko Leinenga El-tec Elektrotechniek BV Christophe Limouzin MRE Business Development Manager, Vryhof Anchors, Boyan Slat Founder and CEO, The Ocean Cleanup Foundation Paris, France Dr. Agnes Ardiyanti Personal title Bsc. Ezra Hildering van Lith student TU Delft, Delft, the Netherlands Emile Arens Huisman Equipment BV, Schiedam, the Netherlands Dr. Jaime López Personal title Msc. Evelien Bolle Personal title Wart Luscuere Personal title Hyke Brugman internship Engineering, Design & Innovation, Hogeschool van Richard Martini Personal title Amsterdam, the Netherlands Bsc. Maximilian Michels MSc student, Computer Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Ber- J.D., LLM., Ph.D. Holly Campbell Instructor at the Oregon State University lin, Germany Msc. Pierre-Louis Christiane Personal title Msc. Bonnie Monteleone Personal title Msc. Kelly Osborn Personal title Ph.D. Bill Cooper University of Califonia-Irvine, U.S. Dr. Senol Ozmutlu Projects Director, Vryhof Anchors, Capelle aan de Yssel, the Msc. Marijn Dekker MSc student TU Delft, Delft, the Netherlands Netherlands Msc. Stella Diamant Personal title Msc. Elena Pallares Labaratori d’Enginyeria Marítima (LIM-UPC) Msc. Bernd van Dijk Personal title Leonid Pavlov Engineer, ATG Europe, Noordwijk, The Netherlands Msc. Mark van Dijk Personal title Herbert Peek El-tec Elektrotechniek BV Msc. Sjoerd Drenkelford Personal title Msc. Kauê Pelegrini Polymers Laboratory, University of Caxias do Sul, Brazil Ir. Jabe Faber USG engineering Dr. Gabrielle S. Prendergast Personal title Msc. Fransesco F. Ferrari Personal title Dr. Maira Proietti Universidade Federal do Rio Grande Dr. Norbert Fraunholcz Recycling Avenue BV, Delft, the Netherlands Jill Randolph Personal title John Clinton Geil Co-founder, International Ocean Law and Science Institute. Bsc. Alexander Rau MSc student, Computer Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Ber- J.D. Lewis and Clark Law School. A.B. Occidental College, lin, Germany Assistant Attorney General for the State of Oregon PhD. Julia Reisser The University of Western Australia Msc. Christian Göbel Instituto Federal Rio Grande do Sul Dr. Marleen Roelofs Personal title Bsc., CPA Dario Grassini Personal title Bsc. Sebastiaan van Rossum MSc student TU Delft, Delft, the Netherlands; intern, Vuyk En- Bsc Joost de Haan MSc student TU Delft, Delft, the Netherlands gineering Rotterdam BV Msc. Jort Hammer Personal title Rebecca Rushton Third-year law student at the University of Oregon Richard G. Hildreth Board of Directors, International Ocean Law and Science Ir. Stefan van Ruyven Huisman Equipment BV, Schiedam, the Netherlands Institute. J.D. University of Michigan; Frank Nash Professor of PhD. Bruno Sainte-Rose LEMMA, Paris, Head of Office Law and Director of the University of Oregon Ocean & Coastal Bsc Sneh Samir MSc student TU Delft, Delft, the NetherlandsBSc student TU Law Center Sebastiaan van Schie Delft, Delft, the Netherlands Tadzio Holtrop Personal title Msc. Moritz Schmid Takuvik Joint International Labatory, Laval University, Canada; Edward Hornsby Personal title CNRS, France; Département de biologie et Québac-Océan, Sam van der Horst Personal title Université Laval, Québec, Canada Nick Howard Personal title Bsc. Katherine Schmidt Personal title Hester Jansen Personal title Bsc. Nandini Sivasubramanian Intern, Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, Freiburg, Ger- Bsc. Wouter Jansen MSc student TU Delft, Delft, the Netherlands many Jochem A. Jonkman Recycling Avenue BV, Delft, the Netherlands Bsc. Kathleen Laura Stack Personal title LLB, LLM Nicholas P. Katsepontes Retired, personal title Paula Walker Co-founder, International Ocean Law and Science Institute. Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Freiburg, J.D. Lewis and Clark Law School Germany; Laboratory for Simulation, Department of Microsys- Adam Walters Oceans, Coasts, and Watersheds Fellow at the University of tems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, Germany Oregon School of Law PhD. David Kauzlaric Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies; Laboratory for Simu- Nathan Walworth University of Southern California lation, Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), Uni- MSc. Niklas Wehkamp MSc. in Microsystems Engineering versity of Freiburg, Germany Bsc. Robbert Zuijderwijk Student Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands Bsc. Raphael Klein MSc student TU Delft, Delft, the Netherlands Dr.Ir. Jan de Sonneville Personal title HOW THE OCEANS CAN CLEAN THEMSELVES A FEASIBILITY STUDY 6 CHAPTER 1.1 7 COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Version 2.0 Copyright © 2014 by The Ocean Cleanup All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a review. Printed in The Netherlands First Printing, June 2014 Version 1.0 is available on request. The Ocean Cleanup Stevinweg 1 2628 CN Delft The Netherlands theoceancleanup.com Cover and book design by HOAX Graphic Design www.hoaxhoaxhoax.com Book Cover made from 100% Ocean Plastic (90% PE, 10% PP est.). Please Recycle. HOW THE OCEANS CAN CLEAN THEMSELVES A FEASIBILITY STUDY 8 CHAPTER 1.1 9 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Every year we produce about 300 million tons of plastic, a portion of which enters and accumulates in the oceans. Due to large offshore current systems called gyres, plas- BOYAN Slat • Hester JANSEN • JAN DE SONNEVIlle tic concentrates in certain offshore areas, of which the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between Hawaii and Califor- nia is the best-known example. The damage to sea life is staggering: at least one million seabirds, and hundreds of thousands of marine mam- mals die each year due to the pollution. Even worse, the survival of many species, like the Hawaiian Monk Seal and Loggerhead Turtle, is directly jeopardized by plastic debris. Marine species often become entangled in larger debris, Figure 1 Albatross with plastic in its stomach. Photo by Chris leading to “injury, illness, suffocation, starvation, and Jordan even death” (NOAA, 2014). Smaller fragments can be mis- taken for food and eaten, causing malnutrition, intestinal blockage and death (Figure 1). When marine animals eat plastic, harmful chemicals move up the food chain. Inges- tion of and entanglement in marine debris by marine ani- mals has increased by 40% in the last decade. Further- more, plastics can transport invasive species and toxic substances over great distances. The problem does not end there. Marine debris causes an estimated $1.27 billion in fishing and vessel damage annually in the region of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co- operation (APEC) alone. Moreover, the removal of garbage from coastlines costs up to $25,000 per ton of plastic. HOW THE OCEANS CAN CLEAN THEMSELVES A FEASIBILITY STUDY 10 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 11 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Plastic Organism Figure 2 Schematic overview of the five rotating currents, called Figure 3 A preliminary design of a collection platform gyres, where floating plastic accumulates (Erwin Zwart – Fabrique Computer Graphics) Mean current direction IN SEARCH OF A SOLUTION THE CONCEPT Top view Even if we manage to prevent any more plastic from en- The Ocean Cleanup Array utilizes long floating barriers tering the oceans, the natural loss of plastic from the which —being at an angle— capture and concentrate gyres is slow and likely low; therefore, a cleanup is still the plastic, making mechanical extraction possible. One necessary. Since the problem gained widespread atten- of the main advantages of this passive cleanup concept tion at the beginning of this century, several cleanup con- is that it is scalable. Using the natural circulation period cepts have been proposed, each based on vessels with of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, cleanup duration nets – essentially, fishing for plastic. Unfortunately, even could be reduced to a minimum of just 5 years. though the concentration of plastic in these five sub- tropical gyres is extremely high compared to the rest of Using a passive collection approach, operational expens- the oceans, plastic is still spread over millions of square es can potentially be very low, making the cleanup more kilometers. Hence, it would likely take many billions of viable. Furthermore, converting the extracted plastic into Plastic dollars and thousands of years to clean up such an area either energy, oil or new materials could partly cover ex- using those methods (Moore, 2011). By-catch and emis- ecution costs. Figure 4 Simplified and schematic cross-section view of a floating barrier. The blue dots represent plastic particles, while the grey dots sions would likely be problematic using this approach. represent zooplanktonic organisms. Furthermore the ocean is not a particularly friendly place Because no nets would be used, a passive cleanup may to work. Why move through the oceans, if the oceans can well be harmless to the marine ecosystem and could po- move through you? tentially catch particles that are much smaller than what THE feasIBILITY stUDY nets could capture. Between April 2013 and May 2014, The Ocean Cleanup in- This feasibility study examines the physical properties ABSTRACT vestigated the technical feasibility and financial viability of plastic pollution; technical feasibility in terms of fluid The world’s oceans are characterized
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