THE GARBAGE PATCH KID
DELFT, THE NETHERLANDS – There is a lot of plastic in the world’s oceans. In fact, according to a recent report by the World Economic Forum, if we keep producing and failing to dispose of plastic at predicted rates, plastics in the ocean will outweigh fish pound for pound in 2050. According to the report, worldwide use of plastic has increased 20-fold in the past 50 years, and it is expected to double again in the next 20 years. By 2050, we’ll be making more than three times as much plastic stuff as we did in 2014.
Last year, we told you about Boyan Slat, the Dutch native who founded the Ocean Cleanup. At 17, he decided he wanted to do something about the plastic adsorption polluting the world’s oceans, killing seabirds and marine mammals, and causing human health problems such as birth disabilities and cancer. A conventional clean up would take thousands of years and cost billions of dollars, so Boyan came up with the idea of the oceans cleaning themselves. He developed an idea using the currents to drive the plastic into special collecting areas.
Now at 21, Boyan and his team are finally set to launch a prototype, when the Ocean Cleanup plans to unfurl a 100-metre version off the coast of the Netherlands, with the objective to monitor the effects of real-life sea conditions, with a focus on waves and currents. Plans are also in the works to deploy a system off the coast of Tsushima, an island located in the waters between Japan and South Korea, and within five years another system is set to be deployed to clean up about half the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between Hawaii and California.
