In October 2018, the environmental non-profit, Ocean Clean Up, deployed its first cleanup system into the Pacific Ocean to begin removal of plastic from the “great Pacific garbage patch.” Ocean Clean Up is a public interest organization founded by Netherlands native, Boyan Slat, when he was just eighteen years old. Their mission is to rid the world’s oceans of plastic pollution. The cleanup system resembles a 600-meter length section of enormous PVC piping, with floatation devices and antennae attached at regular intervals. The goal is to collect plastic waste floating in the gyre off the coast of California, and to remove the waste for on-shore recycling.
The system is propelled by the tides and wind, and has solar powered tracking devices. The length of the floating system is bent in a U-shape and has an attached skirt that hangs three meters below the surface of the water, meant to trap plastic waste as the tides propel the system across the surface of the ocean. The system, dubbed “Wilson”, is the first of a series of systems Ocean Cleanup hopes to launch throughout the five gyres of plastic in the world’s oceans in an attempt to collect the waste stuck in the circular tidal systems.
As previously mentioned, there are five ocean gyres (or circular currents) in the world that are created by the wind, the Earth’s rotation, and landmasses. Garbage that enters the ocean collects in the calm waters located in the center of these gyres. Of the five, the gyres that collect garbage are located in the Indian Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, and North Pacific Ocean, which is home to what has been dubbed “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”
Critics of Ocean Cleanup claim the non-profit is addressing a problem that will only continue to worsen without pollution prevention, arguing that pollution continues at a rate of 19 billion pounds of plastic that enter the oceans per year. Ocean Cleanup recognizes criticisms but argues that removing plastic from the surface of the ocean while it is still in large pieces will prevent those pieces from breaking down into microplastics, which are more dangerous to the ocean ecosystem and much more difficult to remove.
In addition to citizen groups like Ocean Cleanup, the government has also recognized the issue and taken action. On October 11, 2018, the President signed into law the Save Our Seas Act, which aims to address and fund remedies to the plastic pollution problems found in the world’s oceans. The program has a budget of ten million dollars per year and has been touted as a bipartisan “act of unity.” The Act reauthorizes the program until 2022.
In 2014, California banned the use of plastic bags at grocery and other stores. The Los Angeles Times approximates that this equates to 13 billion plastic bags per year. Delaware, New York, and Rhode Island have subsequently followed suit. The National Conference of State Legislatures states that “[a]t least [seventy-three] bills have been introduced in state legislatures this [2017-2018] session regarding the use of plastic bags in retail settings.” More recently and unsurprisingly, California achieved status as leader of the pack by banning plastic straws in restaurants in September 2018.
It is clear that cleanup efforts will help undo some of the damage that has been caused by human consumption since the industrialization of the modern world. However, preventative action must be conducted in conjunction with such cleanup efforts to provide any sort of meaningful relief to the world’s oceans. The efficacy of legislative action and independent projects will only be seen once time has passed and the efforts have been given a chance to make an impact. Hopefully, these efforts are not too late.
References
• https://www.theoceancleanup.com, last visited January 30, 2019.
• https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/ocean-gyre/, last visited January 30, 2019.
• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/26/ocean-cleanup-project-environment-pollution-boyan-slat Too Good to be true? The Ocean Cleaup Project faces feasibility questions, Lindsay Kratochwill, October 29, 2018.
• https://www.theoceancleanup.com, last visited January 30, 2019.
• https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2018/10/11/save-seas-act-signed-law/ Save Our Seas Act Signed into Law, Kevin Allexon, October 29, 2018.
• https://www.apnews.com/2d5947a8bd924adc9f0ab077177fabdd Trump signs Save our Seas Act into law, October 29, 2018.
• http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-plastic-bag-ban-anniversary-20171118-story.html It’s been a year since California banned the use of plastic bags. The world didn’t end, October 29, 2018.
• http://www.ncsl.org/research/environment-and-natural-resources/plastic-bag-legislation.aspx#Bans State Plastic and Paper Bag Legislation, October 29, 2018.
• http://www.ncsl.org/research/environment-and-natural-resources/plastic-bag-legislation.aspx#Bans California bans plastic straws in full-service restaurants – unless customers request, Ralph Ellis, October 29, 2018.