It is clear that human beings are dumping tons and tons of plastic into the sea in an uncontrolled way during the last decades. This plastic is creating a catastrophic footprint in the world's oceans. And it is that plastics, a material that we use every day our day to day and that we end up not even recycled, measured using as it should. To avoid this situation and clean the oceans of plastic, the project was born TheOcean Cleanup. It is a project that tries to clean the oceans of the placid we deduce human beings.
In this article we are going to tell you what The Ocean Cleanup project consists of and what characteristics it has.
Pollution of the oceans by plastics
Plastic is the material that we use daily in large quantities and that can be found in places such as waterways and in the oceans by draining urban areas. Inevitably this product becomes so polluting that it ends up in the seas and oceans and endangers the life of marine animals and ours. We say that it endangers our health since we can incorporate micro plastics through the food chain. This plastic is ingested by animals as it is found floating in the sea and oceans around the world.
At present some purposes are being carried out to reduce the waste that is in the oceans. This project is known as The Ocean Cleanup. In this project there is a technology that is prepared to be able to extract plastic waste and prevent it from being contaminated again.
Globally, a large amount of plastics is produced that ends up in the seas and oceans of the entire planet. We can observe almost anywhere large quantity of straws, containers, nets of any kind, bottles, bags, etc. All these residues form a large quantity of garbage islands in the middle of the ocean. There are already 5 islands of plastics in the oceans. The largest of these is located between Hawaii and California and has been called the great garbage patch of the Pacific. These plastic islands are formed by ocean currents that end up storing all this waste in one exact place.
I have only to say that this pollution causes a reduction in the quality of the waters and endangers the life of aquatic animals. These animals frequently feed on waste, mistaking it for common food. In addition, many others confuse these plastics and get caught in them. Sea turtles are the animals that most mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and when ingested they cause serious health problems and even death. Other animals get caught in the plastic waste and seriously injured. These wounds prevent them from moving, feeding or carrying out any activity such as hunting.
Consequences of ocean pollution
As expected, this problem not only affects marine animals, but also humans. This is because we eat so many seafood. The pollution that we have caused ourselves can alter the balance of ecosystems and end up in our body through the food chain.
To reduce the problems of plastic pollution, The Ocean Cleanup project was born. Its main objective is to help clean up marine ecosystems, although these measures are not fast enough to be able to stop pollution effectively. Large projects are required that can combine the cleaning of what is already accumulated in the oceans and to prevent the introduction of new waste. Using conventional methods such as boats would cost them billions of dollars and thousands of years to implement. The solution is The Ocean Cleanup.
The Ocean Cleanup
This project was born from the hand of the Dutch student Boyan Slat who proposed an effective plan to clean plastics from the ocean. This plan is still in its infancy and has to be adapted and improved over time. The viability of this project is quite high. The Ocean Cleanup aims to extract the waste from the seas and oceans through a passive method. This method means that the human being does not have to intervene for its use, but takes advantage of the natural impulse of the wind and the sea currents for the concentration and collection of the plastic.
In this way, this project is mainly based on the installation of floating barrier systems that are strategically located in the North Pacific Ocean that is capable of collecting the garbage attracted by the sea currents and the wind. This floating barrier has more or less a length of 600 meters long and will consist of two arms attached to some barriers that are submerged to about 3 meters deep. This prevents waste from escaping underneath. The floating arms are positioned in a V shape to be able to concentrate all the waste in the central part of the barrier.
A cylindrical platform is installed that acts as a container to store the waste. With the help of some boats The waste will be removed approximately every 45 days and will be returned to the mainland. Once incorporated back into civilization, it can be recycled or sold for reuse, ensuring that the self-cleaning of the sea and oceans is sustainable.
How The Ocean Cleanup Works
Since there are 5 and there are lots of garbage distributed in the oceans around the world, it is intended to install the barriers on the 5 islets. In these areas, the marine currents are the cause of storing the waste in these places. And it is that there are circular ocean currents in the North and South Pacific Ocean, in the Indian Oceans and also in the North and South Atlantic Ocean. In these places the project will be able to help capture plastics of a great diversity of sizes. From this those small pieces that are only mm in size to large debris such as massive fishing nets.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about The Ocean Cleanup project.