Posted on 09/09/2018 9:40:49 AM PDT by Eddie01
https://www.theoceancleanup.com/system001/
The Ocean Cleanup team claims their 2,000-foot tube will provide the solution to widespread plastic pollution in the world's seas.
A ship departing Los Angeles on Saturday is carrying a giant floating tube which company researchers claim will help to clean plastic pieces spread throughout the ocean, the Guardian reports. The Ocean Cleanup has been in the planning stages for several years and is now testing its technology on the open sea.
The first test launch was made on Saturday with the ship deploying System 001 tubes in the San Francisco Bay. The tubes were set to be in a U-shaped form, the better to contain and retrieve floating plastic garbage. A 9-foot skirt beneath the tubes stops plastic bits from floating away but allows wildlife to travel below.
The efficiency of the Ocean Cleanup system is on track to be detailed after a test run of some 6 weeks, after which a support will rendezvous with the collection vessel to retrieve collected pollutants.
System 001, coordinates: 37.81867° / —122.4421°. Check out our live map via https://t.co/1BtgT9dps7 to track the system's location. pic.twitter.com/sxw3xt1bxL
Ocean Cleanup is currently a small nonprofit organization founded by a Netherland's resident Boyan Slat. At the age of 18, Slat proposed the cleanup the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a floating mass of plastic bits and pieces of garbage said to be twice the size of Texas. If it can swell to a fleet of 60 devices like System 001, Ocean Cleanup says that it could remove at least 50 percent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in five years, and 90 percent of ocean trash by 2040.
To gather funds the company launched a crowdfunding campaign in 2013, which raised $35 million in donations since that time, according to CNBC. The funds allowed the testing pf 270 models and six prototypes before the creation of System 001.
The Ocean Cleanup attracted the attention of environmental and tech companies, including tech star Elon Musk, who tweeted that he found the idea of System 001 “cool.”
Looks cool
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 8 сентября 2018 г. Environmental activist group Greenpeace noted that while the idea is “laudable,” it deals only with consequences and does not address the root cause of the problem: the widespread and thoughtless oceanic pollution practised by mankind.
“Prevention is far better than cure and in order to tackle the pollution crisis corporations must stop producing so much plastic,” a Greenpeace spokesperson told the Guardian.
Good points all.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for a clean environment. Gotta start somewhere I suppose, but there’s a lot of ocean out there. Seems like a thankless and never ending job. And who is paying for it?
Musk thinks it’s a giant joint?
So, a giant straw?
Yes; I wonder what material they used to fabricate that giant bendable tube?
It is a hugh task. The mass is said to cover an area the size of Texas.
2000 feet? I don’t know.
Maybe I’d be more confident if they had Leon Panetta and Ted Danson piloting the vessel. They were so big on ‘Save the Oceans’ not so many years ago. Save it for what, I’m not sure. Aliens perhaps.
I am sure that after “promising results” you and I will soon be paying for it.
Is this useless thing made of plastic? Those ever-polluting bastar*s.
The major source are the rivers in Asia and Africa.
Yes. The sh*thole countries are the cause of 95% of the ocean's pollution. That shows a shocking lack of diversity in the pollution generating demographic!
1.8 billion Chinese can be wrong ... even they have admitted it.
So how long before some guy pulling water skiers runs over it?
I remember seeing this kid’s Ted Talk a couple of years ago. Very inspirational.
Plastic is not very reactive. It comes more under the category of ‘sight pollution,” if that’s the right term for it.
I’d be more concerned about sewage, chemicals, and Fukushima radiation than plastic thousands of miles out in the ocean, where no one can see it.
Still, if someone wants to clean it up and I don’t have to pay for it, that’s fine with me.
Musk thinks it’s a giant joint?
Yep
The major source are the rivers in Asia and Africa.
—
PS: China is in Asia; most major African rivers flow into the Atlantic, i believe
Lye and a pressure-washer.
“I hate it when my giant tube isn’t clean.”
Me too...every foot of it!
When the “tube” gets full...who’s going to empty it?
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