19-Year-old invents feasible solution to cleanup ocean garbage patches

June 3, 2014, New York - The Ocean Cleanup, founded by Dutchman Boyan Slat, has unveiled its feasibility report today, concluding that its concept is a viable method to clean the oceans from plastic. The report is the result of more than a year of extensive scientific research in engineering, oceanography, ecology, maritime law, finance and recycling. The feasibility study was financially supported by crowd funding and professional in kind contributions. The research was done by an international team of over 100 experts, predominantly on a voluntary basis. The next step, building and testing large-scale operational pilots, will be initiated as soon as sufficient funding has been raised.www.theoceancleanup.com...

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A cleanup has always been deemed impossible, costing many billions of dollars and taking thousands of years to complete.

Their first proof-of-concept test, which was performed at the Azores Islands, confirmed the capture and concentration potential of the floating barriers. After capture the plastic is removed mechanically and, according to the report, if it can be converted into other materials or oil some of the costs could potentially be recovered.

So what’s the catch? Cleanup projects unfortunately don’t come cheap, and the team estimate that this will cost €31.7 million per year (around $43 million). While this may sound dramatic, according to the report it’s actually around 33 times cheaper than other conventional cleanup methods that have been proposed to deal with the problem. But to minimize costs, The Ocean Cleanup is outsourcing most of the fundamental research to institutes and is also collaborating with various companies. In order to implement the next stage of the project, which will involve large-scale operational pilots, the company is now crowdsourcing $2 million.


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This is the kind of project I can really get behind and even though it seems costly at roughly $43 million a year consider this,marine debris is estimated to cause around $1.27 million per year in fishing and vessel damage. I do not think there is anyone debating whether or not there is a problem at least I don't think there is. It seems to me the benefit of cleaning up our mess outweighs the cost in all areas.

Now I am not saying the current proposal by this kid and his team is the best solution we can come up with but it certainly seems like it is the best one we have now. spending 43 million a year to solve a 1.27 billion a year problem seems worthwhile.

Does anyone disagree? I don't think anyone would say the problem will solve itself at least not for a few thousand years.


TheOceanCleanup

I thought the Japanese were trying to melt it with radioactive water. Is that not working?

great..
like the teenager who developed that improved solar cell
someone else we'll probably never hear from again...

(S&F'd)

One of the quickest and cheapest ways to clean the oceans would be to pay the fishermen!

Every trawler pulls up rubbish every-time they lift the trawl from the water. At the moment they throw it back into the water. If they were paid to bring the rubbish back to shore the oceans would be cleaned up very quickly without any need for expensive high tech gadgets!

I used to run a small trawler and the rubbish caught in the nets is a nuisance, had there been an incentive I'd have brought it back to shore.
In the uk fishermen have restrictions on how much fish they can land, so why not allow them to land extra fish based on how much rubbish they bring back to land?

a reply to: UNIT76

I don't think he will disappear like he said in one of the videos the operation could be profitable.

Recylcling the collected plastic could net up to 500 million. I am not sure if that is per year or throughout the the 5 year plan.

43 million a year to profit an average 100 million isn't bad. I wish my IRAs did as well.

I would hope the young peope on on top of the world's problems.

a reply to: VoidHawk

From the looks of the videos, it seems as if the main problem is the eroded plastics which have been broken down by sun and immersion in a constantly mobile liquid environment. Most of the plastic pieces the young fellow is looking at removing from the oceans, are far too small to be caught up in a fishing net, and according to his research, they are the ones which are doing the most harm, and are the hardest to capture.

That is why he had to go ahead and think up this scheme to remove them, and take five hundred million dollars worth, or 7.25 million tons of garbage out of the sea. Personally, I think any environment secretary in any government on this planet, should be strung up by their reproductive organs and flogged if they refuse to involve themselves in such a project. This seems to me, to be one of the few methods I have heard of cleaning the ocean, which has a hope in hell of working effectively and thoroughly.

a reply to: Grimpachi

Simply wow...

That guys has got drive....I imagined a filtration system quite frugal that was for the same purpose...but did nothing towards it to my shame, what can be done, I guess he's shown us. And I admit it's inspiring.

I really hope this goes some where and I'm willing to source it lol.

Thanks for posting this, it's really great stuff.

And to any humbugers, any start is a good one.

Cheers!

a reply to: VoidHawk

Wow, that's like walking past trash on a hiking trail and not picking it up cause I'm not paid.

Cleaning up after ourselves is good habit, and pays for itself in the long run.......

If we really care about our kids and the future....we should be doing everything thrown in our path to make a difference I'm not above picking up the trash.

Cheers

a reply to: Treespeaker

He definitely has more drive than I do. I donated to his cause it looks as if I am not alone. He is about a quarter of the way there in funding.

The videos were pretty enlightening they really put a lot of thought and testing into it. The last video answered all of my questions as far as feasibility.

As a diver I would love to see a clean ocean. As a human I believe it is our moral obligation to clean up our damn mess.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: VoidHawk

From the looks of the videos, it seems as if the main problem is the eroded plastics which have been broken down by sun and immersion in a constantly mobile liquid environment. Most of the plastic pieces the young fellow is looking at removing from the oceans, are far too small to be caught up in a fishing net, and according to his research, they are the ones which are doing the most harm, and are the hardest to capture.

That is why he had to go ahead and think up this scheme to remove them, and take five hundred million dollars worth, or 7.25 million tons of garbage out of the sea. Personally, I think any environment secretary in any government on this planet, should be strung up by their reproductive organs and flogged if they refuse to involve themselves in such a project. This seems to me, to be one of the few methods I have heard of cleaning the ocean, which has a hope in hell of working effectively and thoroughly.

I dont have the bandwidth at the moment to watch the vids so thanks for the info.

However, where did all the smaller plastic particles come from? They must surely have started out as larger pieces?
Every net I pulled up always had plastics in it. I only had a small eighteen foot beam so imagine how much the big guys would pull up!
For them each trip might mean the plastics amounting to tons! Imagine how much they'd clean up over a year!

Sure what this guy has invented is good, but it doesn't cure anything, much better to get to the cause of the problem, and thats the bigger pieces that then break down into smaller pieces.

a reply to: VoidHawk

The real trouble is what is already there. This is the stuff that gets washed up on pristine, remote islands, and is killing the rarest seabirds, and all sorts of fish and other wildlife in the food chain. We are talking about trillions upon trillions of bits about the size of a five pence piece. The preventative method of getting rid of the larger stuff is a great idea. Not putting it in the ocean in the first place would be a great start!

But to solve the deeper problem, the kid is right. It is necessary to remove these tiny bits as well, because they are the ones which end up in the wildlife, and which are poisoning the oceans.

It's also worth pointing out, that if the scheme the lad has developed can be made to work, and will remove all these little bits as well as the larger samples, then there is no reason NOT to do it. No reason at all.

Years ago I proposed a fleet of skimmer ships anchored in position with floating weirs directing current towards their intakes.

'Course I'm not 19.

a reply to: TrueBrit

I'm not saying we shouldn't use his idea, we should. I'm just pushing the idea that it wont stop the problem UNLESS we get to the source. That source is the bigger stuff. If his invention can deal with the bigger stuff thats great.

But as I said, every day tens of thousands of fishing trawlers all over the globe ARE pulling this stuff up, if an incentive were used they could fix this problem very quickly!

What do trawlers do?
They drag huge nets though the water, they are filter cleaners, they are there every day all year round.

originally posted by: Treespeaker
a reply to: VoidHawk

Wow, that's like walking past trash on a hiking trail and not picking it up cause I'm not paid.

When your on a hiking trail your not having to perform balancing tricks that stop you plummeting into a freezing ocean, also the skipper wants you to deal with the fish!
If an incentive were in place ie: they can land more fish, then the trawlers would gear themselves up to deal with the plastics.

People care even if you don't.

a reply to: VoidHawk

Dude,

The idea is commendable, but as you said you have direct experience.

How would I, as a land lubber,convince simple fisher folk how to pick the plastic at less than crab prices?

To pick folks at already danger pay to pick trash has proven infeasible ... he does mention this in the video I know you couldn't watch. Its's not a matter of ability...it's getting them to work at the same reasonable cost. Crab fishing is very costly as is oil drilling.

On that note it's really a shame we need to consider cost for this kind of project, in a perfect world the best idea would trump..... despite cost. But alas we have right now....

We could probably clean 95% of this in a year if money wasn't in the conversation....and shear ability was.

We dream only so big... and build accordingly.

Cheers!

What do you do with the mess that's there? Disposing of a garbage heap the size of Texas is gonna cost. And then ... how do you stop corporate/state sponsored interests from dumping more later.

You guys oughta see what's on the ocean floor just outside of Pearl Harbor.

a reply to: Snarl

That's what the video is about!!!!

Check it out, it's all right and informative!




Cheers!

a reply to: VoidHawk

ok,you have a way to capture it,great! How much do you catch? Would you need to tow a barge to bring it back? Barge costs,fuel cost,unloading costs....While it would be nice of you to bring it back and dispose of it properly,I understand you need to make $$ too.Your minor dent would not be cost effective