Following the ocean problems, this week I want to mention about ocean and concentrate on the new technology that help collecting plastic waste will be launched next year in Japan. The problems: We assumes that the oceans are so vast and deep. Therefore, how much trash and chemicals we dumped into ocean, the marine ecosystem would not be affected negatively. But recent studies have show that our ecosystem that is in at risk by man made pollution. Most of the waste that reach the oceans through dumping or run-off through drains and rivers. This includes: oil, fertilisers, sewage disposal, plastic, toxic chemicals. Some of them is floating through ocean over the worlds, caused the massive waste islands called dead zones around the world. While the left shrink at the ocean's depths and consumed by small marine organism and introduced into the global food chain. Particular in plastic waste, it is reported that about 8 million tons of plastic enters the ocean each year (Jambeck et al., 2015). At least 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic are currently in the oceans (Eriksen et al., 2014), a third of which is concentrated in the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch (Cózar et al., 2014). The impacts of plastic pollution is numerous. It causes at least US $13 billion each year to industries that include fishing, shipping, tourism and the cleaning of coastlines in globally (UNEP 2014). It also cause risks to human health via food chain and threaten to the marine ecosystem. The solution: Boyan Slat, who 20 years old, has introduced his project: first system to collect plastic waste from ocean called "The Ocean Clean Up". The system is comprised of a series of floating barriers that will trap floating plastic debris and then collect while aquatic life can pass by underneath. The company estimates that 100km cleanup array could remove 70,320,000 kg of plastic waste over 10 years.It is reported that this system would cost roughly 4.53 euros (5.04 USD) per kilogram, which is only 3% of the cost of other potential clean-up methods. Therefore, it is 7900 times faster and 33 times cheaper than other methods. The company currently is installing a 2,000 trial system in Japan and will completed next year. However, there are some technical issues with the system due to it large scale. Some argue the feasibility both in technical and economical of the project (link: deepseanews.org.) Despite all of these obstacles, I hope that the company will success with the project. Thanks for his amazing ideas and efforts. |
References:
<http://www.theoceancleanup.com/the-problem.html>
D.Clements, '20-Year-Old to Launch World’s First Ocean Cleaning System Next Year', May 2015.
<http://www.discovery.com/dscovrd/nature/20-year-old-to-launch-worlds-first-ocean-cleaning-system-next-year/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=DiscoveryChannel>
'Marine pollution, Centuries of abuse have taken a heavy toll', May 2015.
<http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-marine-pollution/>
Dovas, '20 year old inventor's idea for how to make ocean clean itself will be launched in Japan', June 2015.
<http://www.boredpanda.com/20-year-old-inventor-ocean-cleanup-boyan-slat/>
Marine problems: pollution
<http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/problems/pollution/>
K. Martini, 'The Ocean Cleanup, Part 2: Technical review of the feasibility study', July 2014.
<http://deepseanews.com/2014/07/the-ocean-cleanup-part-2-technical-review-of-the-feasibility-study/>
<http://www.theoceancleanup.com/the-problem.html>
D.Clements, '20-Year-Old to Launch World’s First Ocean Cleaning System Next Year', May 2015.
<http://www.discovery.com/dscovrd/nature/20-year-old-to-launch-worlds-first-ocean-cleaning-system-next-year/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=DiscoveryChannel>
'Marine pollution, Centuries of abuse have taken a heavy toll', May 2015.
<http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-marine-pollution/>
Dovas, '20 year old inventor's idea for how to make ocean clean itself will be launched in Japan', June 2015.
<http://www.boredpanda.com/20-year-old-inventor-ocean-cleanup-boyan-slat/>
Marine problems: pollution
<http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/problems/pollution/>
K. Martini, 'The Ocean Cleanup, Part 2: Technical review of the feasibility study', July 2014.
<http://deepseanews.com/2014/07/the-ocean-cleanup-part-2-technical-review-of-the-feasibility-study/>