Most kids struggle to tidy their own bedrooms. But one teenager was inspired to clean up the world’s oceans – with a smart and cost-effective idea.
Plastic has been in mass production for less than a century but in that time millions of tons have entered the oceans. And it’s not going away – the non-biode- gradable plastic just keeps going round and round in five currents or gyres.
There is a major economic cost: an estimated $13 billion globally each year with damage to vessels, the fishing industry, and beaches.
The effects on the planet’s health are even more catastrophic. For example, lantern fish in the largest gyre, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, eat up to 24,000 tons of plastic per year. And at least one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals die each year due to plastic pollution. With the plastic adsorbing toxic chemicals, these accumulate in the food chain, even causing us health problems such as birth disabilities and cancer.
Boyan Slat, a Dutch 17-year old, decided he’d do something about it. A conventional clean up would take thousands of years and many billions of dollars. But what if the oceans could clean themselves? Boyan developed an idea of using the currents to drive the plastic into special collecting areas.
It’s an idea that has grabbed many others too. Boyan has reached his crowd-funding target of $2 million dollars in just 100 days from over 38,000 funders in 160 countries. There is much left to do to test the concept but it’s a hugely impressive first step and we wish him the best of luck.
To find out more, and perhaps get involved,
go to theoceancleanup.com
