CLEAN UP PLASTICS FROM THE OCEANS
Plastics in the ocean are a big
problem.
There are over 5
trillion pieces of plastic currently
litter the ocean. Throwing a plastic in the ocean is a huge problem because we
are polluting it, we are killing all the fauna (especially marine animals) and
destroying the environment only by throwing a little piece of plastic in it.
I think that the most serious problem with plastics is
that they don't easily
degrade. They may break down, but only into smaller pieces. The smaller
those pieces get, the more places they can go.
Humans are also affected by the plastic pollution.
In 2008, our global plastic consumption worldwide
has been estimated at 260 million tons, and, according to a 2012 report by
Global Industry Analysts, plastic consumption is to reach 297.5 million tons by
the end of 2015.
Boyan Slat (1994) is a young
Dutch inventor and entreprenuer who creates technologies to solve social problems. When he
was 15 he realased the huge problem of plastics in the ocean. He was so
interested on that that he started
to investigate.
He is the founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, which
develops advanced technologies to rid world’s oceans of plastic.
Instead of going after the plastic, Boyan devised a
system in which, driven by the ocean currents, the plastic would concentrate
itself, reducing the theoretical cleanup time from millennia to mere
years.
He thought a
solution for this huge plastic problem.
The solution
consisted of putting a
coastline in the Pacific Ocean. This method would concentrate all the plastic by orders of magnitude, 100% powered
by natural ocean currents.
They build the
coastline in the center of the Garbage Patch.
Instead of using nets, The Ocean Cleanup uses solid
screens which catches the floating plastic, but allows sea life to pass
underneath the barrier with the current.Plastic will slowly be pushed towards
the center of the array, becoming even more concentrated.
With all the collection of the plastics we would be able to recycle them.
My opinion:
-I think that his work is amazing and very usefull for the world. It's incredible how this young boy has these ideas to solve this huge problem of the plastics, he has thought a great solution. I don't think eveyone has this capacity to think, understand and plan these ideas.
- One possible solution that I thought is that everyday a group of people of their country go to the beach to collect all the plastics, the government should pay them a little quantity. In the winter they have to go with a boat but in summer they can swim so they don't pollute more the ocean.
Another solution would be to form campaigns to warn people of this huge
problem and make signs warning of this problem.
RESOURCES OF INFORMATION
http://www.boyanslat.com/
https://www.google.es/search?q=plastics+in+the+ocean&espv=2&biw=1440&bih=794&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOi6KfkvbQAhXhq1QKHZL-CR8Q_AUIBigB#imgrc=YSrouOj6CQdpbM%3A
https://www.theoceancleanup.com/technology/
http://plastic-pollution.org/
