The Ocean Cleanup

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STUDENT SHEET 6c The Ocean Cleanup The Ocean Cleanup “Research shows the majority of plastic by The Ocean Cleanup believes it could remove 50% of mass is currently in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 5 years. the larger debris. By removing the plastic Combined with land based actions they believe this while most of it is still could produce a plastic free ocean by 2050. “To large, we prevent succeed in our mission, we need to complete one of it from breaking the most ambitious engineering projects on the face down into dangerous of the planet. Designing mega-structures capable of microplastics.” lasting in the harshest of environments is not easy. Cleaning up 70 % of the world’s surface is even harder, “The only feasible but it is a challenge we are motivated to overcome.” way to remove plastic from the Boyan Slat, CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, hopes to ocean is to collect it scoop out the plastic from the ocean before it breaks from the shore where down using a giant net to form an artificial coastline. the land acts as a He has received crowdfunding and grants to pursue natural net” the project. Scientist critical of Ocean Cleanup Update December 2018: Due to a structural malfunctioning of the Cleanup system, the team decided to return to port early for repair and 1 assessment Update April 2019: Relaunch expected in a few months. 2 1. Plastic debris is carried to the artificial coastline by the ocean currents 3 2. Plastic is gathered and concentrated 3. Ship removes plastic to land for recycling Ocean Plastics 11-14 Geography 72 Copyright 2019 Encounter Edu and Common Seas This resource may be reproduced for educational purposes only STUDENT SHEET 6c ? ? Removing plastic directly from the mid-ocean is so difficult, it’s not really worth it. Ocean Plastics 11-14 Geography 73 Copyright 2019 Encounter Edu and Common Seas This resource may be reproduced for educational purposes only.

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The Technological Challenges of Dealing with Plastics in the Environment
COMMENTARY The Technological Challenges of Dealing With Plastics in the Environment AUTHORS tem functions, the effects of micro- the Ellen McArthur Foundation push- Sarah-Jeanne Royer plastics are still not fully understood, ing for new plastic economy (https:// Scripps Institution of Oceanography, although they are widely accepted to www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/ University of California, San Diego be negative. This is exacerbated by our-work/activities/new-plastics- and The Ocean Cleanup Foundation, the fact that it is difﬁcult (if not im- economy) and global commitments Delft, The Netherlands possible) to remove such microplastics from a list of countries to manage the from the environment. Or, at least, Dimitri D. Deheyn balance between environmental health the technology of today to do so at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the plastic economy (https:// such a large scale is still not ready. University of California, San Diego www.ellenmacarthurfoundation. Hence, most of the technological in- org/news/a-line-in-the-sand-ellen- novations related to plastic targets macarthur-foundation-launch-global- lastic pollution has been at the the macroplastics only; even though commitment-to-eliminate-plastic- forefront of national news and social P this size fraction might not be the pollution-at-the-source). media with shocking images of wild- most abundant or damaging, at life impacted with plastics. Plastics least, it can be removed and hence are found in remote places, from prevent its further fragmentation in Plastics: Impact on Society mountain tops to the bottom of the the environment. and Public Health Still oceans and from the North Pole to ﬂ In this article, we brie yidentify a Well-Kept Mystery Antarctica, and are a sign of the wide- the technologies that are proposed to Despite being one of the most spread impact of human activities.
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