Web Log #3 – The Oceans of Plastics that Someone Cared to Confront ...

If you happened to read my recent posts, you probably knew that I am interested about managing natural resources. The things I learned so far are not yet the main chunk of knowledge as I am in an introduction phase of the program but the juices I got out from it were as good as the chunk itself. Think about tender juicy slice of steak, yummy right? I know for the fact that the further I go along learning this program the juicier the bites are.

Yah, just like the slice of juicy steak.

Now let me go back to my main topic here, I know you heard the word “plastics” and how can they either help or destroy (at least in the near future) our lives. Let’s see how plastic can make our life easier. By land, you have the world’s most common plastic chairs, Monobloc chairs[1]. Nowadays, you will see them on almost everywhere. There are one-seater, four-seaters, and even rocking chairs for oldies. You’ll just have to choose if you want them with arm rest or not. How about bottled water in plastic bottles? Safe to drink and easier to bring along with you right? Plus they can be acquired anywhere and anytime at the cheapest price that suits your budget.

I remember a video from TED-Ed channel called

“What really happens to the plastic you throw away?”

[2] created by Emma Bryce with the help of professional animators of TED-Ed. It was said that these resilient plastic bottles went in 3 different paths that really hurt our natural environment and resources:

1.Dumped in landfill

and when compress with other wastes with rain-water flows to it, it becomes landfill leachate that are very harmful when moves in to the soil, groundwater, and our water streams. It poisons the wildlife and marine ecosystem.

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2.Traps in Plastic-filled Gyres.

In the case of plastic bottles dump and flows in streams, rivers, oceans in the Philippines, they end up in Western Pacific Gyre. This plastic-filled gyres are very dangerous to
animals such as seabirds and other marine animals in the sea that mistakenly eat these bits of plastics as food.

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3.Recycled to create another useful material such as chairs and bags.

Shocking what Plastics can do to us and to our ENVIRONMENT.

But do not lose hope, each single one of us can make change and difference. We can start little by NOT LITTERING anywhere and encourage your family and your community to practice segregation.

Someone in our time or generation there is an individual destined to do great things like Albert Einstein, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Moses, or our own Jose Rizal. In our time if we talk about Environment, you might have been heard the name Boyan Slat. Recently in one of my class, our professor asked us to research about Boyan Slat and his objectives in his project.

Our guy here is popular in the internet and news blogs.

This 23 year old inventor and a dropped-out Aerospace Engineering student has received numerous prestigious awards since he started his own company.

Yes, he has his own company a year later or two after he conceptualized his vision of machine and his objectives to help clean the plastics in North Pacific Gyre.

So, let me start the proper way to describe our modern environmental hero who is probably worthy of a movie in Hollywood or a rap song.

Boyan Slat is a Dutch inventor and entrepreneur who was born in July 27, 1994 (23 years old) in the Dutch town of Delft, province of South Holland. In 2013, he founded the non-profit organization composed of more than 65 engineers, researchers, scientists, and computational modelers called The Ocean Cleanup. He received numerous prestigious awards since he started his own company.

Figure 1.

Boyan Slat in the boat in one of his many ocean observations and studies img src

When Boyan Slat deliver his talked in TEDxDelft in 2012, he shared how his diving experience in Greece prostrated him when he saw more plastics in the ocean than fish. While he is in Delft University, he kept on thinking of how the #plastics can be remove more effectively and faster in such a way different from being practice today in the ocean.

When he finally had enough funds in 2013, he setup and established The Ocean Cleanup with the objective of building and deploying 24 Cleanup Platform System units in the span of 5 years.

This system was inspired by manta ray’s shape (see Figure 2) to clean the plastic pollution that is currently circulating in the Great Pacific Gyre. The collected plastic garbage will then brought back to the land and sold for recycling.

Figure 2

The manta ray inspired Cleanup System img src

Boyan Slat is just 23 years old, it proves to us that age should not be of any hindrance to demonstrate how someone like you and me can make a difference in finding different solutions and approaches to any longstanding and latest environmental problems.

In this case, I say longstanding problem since plastics in the Gyres around the globe are considered longstanding environmental problem of our generation today and latest because problems such as what team of The Ocean Cleanup facing right now – studying ocean current behaviors, Cleanup System designs and materials to be use based on data logs and records, etc. just to come-up with better System to take out the plastic trash in the ocean that should not be in that ecosystem in the first place.

There were many changes in his original cleanup deadline and design since it was conceive in 2012 – ((1) 5 years after 2013 using 1st-generation Cleanup System – manta ray shape – see Fig 2., (2) until year 2020 using second-generation Cleanup System – with separator to separate the big and small plastics but still anchored in seabed – see Figure 3., (3) within 12 months after the team’s announcement last May 2017 using 3rd-generation Cleanup System – detached in seabed that flawlessly go with the ocean’s current – see Figure 4.) just to come-up with better solutions from time to time. I think his team’s latest generation of Cleanup System is by far superior than the previous. Even his notion of cleanup strategy “Why go after the plastic, if the plastic can come to you?” changed into “to catch the plastic, act like the plastic.” because of their latest proven studies.

Figure 3.

Cleanup System capable of separating big and small plastics. Attached in seabed. img src

Figure4.

2017 Cleanup System unattached in seabed img src

Even though his company right now is concentrating in one region of North Pacific Gyre which is in between Hawaii and California, it will be a good start but it needs to be funded and should gain massive support in international level to reach other great gyres. While old school cleanup strategy is still there in the ocean (big both catching the trash with its net), this new strategy of cleaning up the ocean is proven of significant help as compared to current practice. On an international level; nations must fully grasp the obvious problems created by plastics in marine ecosystems while tightening each and every policy internationally and locally in order to prevent more trash going into our oceans.