- Wed Jun 18, 2014 3:15 pm
#8481
19-Year-Old's Ocean Cleanup Array Could Clean Half the Pacific Garbage Patch in 10 Years.
Last year teenage inventor Boyan Slat’s planned to create an Ocean Cleanup Array that could remove 7,250,000 tons of plastic waste from the world’s oceans. His proposal for an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms received a lot of criticism – but now, just over a year later, Boyan is back with the results of a year-long investigation that shows his invention does offer a feasible method to rid the world’s oceans of plastic pollution. In fact, he claims that a single array could remove half of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in just 10 years.
The year-long study sought to determine if Boyan Slat’s array is indeed a feasible ocean cleanup method. The result? According to the independent experts who have read the full 530-page report (which is even wrapped in plastic recovered from the oceans): it is.
Slat’s proposed Ocean Cleanup Array uses natural ocean currents and winds to passively transport plastic towards an anchored collection platform. Large booms extend outwards at angles to direct debris towards the collection platform, and solid floating barriers prevent sea life from getting entangled in the array.
Read more...
Sources
Inhabitat
Last year teenage inventor Boyan Slat’s planned to create an Ocean Cleanup Array that could remove 7,250,000 tons of plastic waste from the world’s oceans. His proposal for an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms received a lot of criticism – but now, just over a year later, Boyan is back with the results of a year-long investigation that shows his invention does offer a feasible method to rid the world’s oceans of plastic pollution. In fact, he claims that a single array could remove half of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in just 10 years.
The year-long study sought to determine if Boyan Slat’s array is indeed a feasible ocean cleanup method. The result? According to the independent experts who have read the full 530-page report (which is even wrapped in plastic recovered from the oceans): it is.
Slat’s proposed Ocean Cleanup Array uses natural ocean currents and winds to passively transport plastic towards an anchored collection platform. Large booms extend outwards at angles to direct debris towards the collection platform, and solid floating barriers prevent sea life from getting entangled in the array.
Read more...
Sources
Inhabitat
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." R.Buckminster Fuller