19-year-old Dutch kid ready to clean up the ocean

[merithyn]

This is pretty neat. Not just the cleaning up the ocean bit, but also that a 19-year-old kid has the passion and drive to do all that he has. On top of that, he, along with about 50 other engineers, modelers, and students, is in the process of completing a feasibility study to see just how well his design would work.

http://www.boyanslat.com/

HOW MUCH PLASTIC CAN YOU GET OUT?

  Approximately 1/3 of global ocean surface plastic pollution. This we estimate to be 7,250,000,000 kg.
We calculated this by combining data from scientific publications and our own measurements outside gyres with a computer density prediction model. With our estimation, we tried to be as complete as possible by including both microplastics and large debris, like ghost nets.

Because this calculation has a very large margin for error, we are now repeating the same extrapolation with 2 other plastic accumilation models, and will include many more datapoints.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
 
   The essence of The Ocean Cleanup Array is, instead of fighting it, to use the ocean to your advantage.
The gyres are 5 areas in world's oceans where rotating currents create an accumulating mass of plastic, dubbed 'Garbage Patches'.

Moving through the oceans to collect plastic would be costly, clumsy and polluting, so why not let the rotating currents transport the debris to you? With The Ocean Cleanup Array, an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms will span the radius of such a gyre. These booms act as giant 'funnels', where an angle of the booms create a component of the surface current force in the direction of the platforms. The debris then enters the platforms, where it will be filtered out of the water, and eventually stored in containers until collected for recycling on land.

HOW IS PLASTIC SEPARATED FROM MARINE LIFE? 

  One of the most significant advantages of using booms instead of nets is that marine life cannot be caught in them. Furthermore, because the transport of plastic along the booms is driven by the currents, it's slow enough for organisms to escape.

Because plastic accumulates along the booms and zooplankton does not, the ratio between zooplankton and plastic is (in theory) negligible. This is one of the aspects that will be tested in the pilot project. Our (tested) alternative is separating the small plankton and plastic using centrifugal forces, based on a density difference.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO CLEAN UP A GYRE?

   About 5 years. OSCURS drifter tracking models show the natural rotational period of the gyres' currents is approximately 5 years. However, since surface currents are largely driven by wind, there is a degree of variability. The idea is to span The Ocean Cleanup Array as a radius of these rotating systems, and thereby intercepting the moving debris. Since it concerns a certain angular velocity, the time it will take is independent of the covered area (or radius).

IS IT A PERFECT SOLUTION? 
 
   No. We will be able to retrieve billions of kilograms of plastic from the oceans, but that still won't be 100% of what's in the world's oceans. We'll need a combination of extraction from the oceans and prevention on land in order to succeed. One of the problems with preventive work is that there isn't any imagery of these 'garbage patches', because the debris is dispersed over millions of square kilometres. By placing our arrays however, it will accumulate along the booms, making it suddenly possible to actually visualise the oceanic garbage patches. We need to stress the importance of recycling, and reducing our consumption of plastic packaging.

Furthermore, by developing systems that will intercept plastic before it reaches the sea, we hope to further reduce the impact of plastic on the oceans. 

FINANCIALLY PROFITABLE? REALLY?
 
   We believe financial advantages greatly improve the chances of the project's execution.
Some interesting concepts have been designed in the past, although they share one property; their executement would cost vast amounts of money. Why not use the plastics retrieved from the 5 gyres for recycling?

According to current estimations – due to the plan's unprecedented efficiency – recycling benefits would significantly outweigh the costs of executing the project. Although the quality of the plastic is somewhat lower than ordinary recycled plastic, it could for example be mixed with other plastics to produce high-quality products. PR through an Ocean Plastics brand can further increase the plastics' value, and would create awareness with the consumer.

WILL IT INTERFERE WITH SHIPPING TRAFFIC?

  This is of course essential for the concept to be implemented. Key is that the Ocean Cleanup array will not obstruct shipping routes. The array will be placed parallel to those shipping routes, preventing any issues.
Besides, most gyres are located in scarcely sailed areas. Accoring to our maritime law expert and IMO advisor, the Ocean Cleanup Array would be classified as an 'artificial island' under UNCLOS (international waters convention), but so-called 'Areas to be avoided' should be set, to prevent any conflicts with vessels.
Furthermore, The Ocean Cleanup Array will have to be charted. But because it is not realistic to block the entire radius of a gyre from ship crossings (a), several of these 'gaps' (b) will be introduced to the array.


 
WHAT IS THE PROJECT'S HISTORY?

   In 2011, together with friend Tan Nguyen, Boyan Slat embarked on writing his final paper in the last year of secondary education, researching the possibility of remediation world's oceanic garbage patches.
During this project, they performed analyses on concentration of particles between 90 micron and 333 micron, plastic/plankton separation, plastic depth measurement devices and amount of plastic within the top layer of the gyres. Spending over 500 hours on the paper (instead of the required 80 hours), it has won several final paper prizes, including Best Technical Design 2012 at the Delft University of Technology.

Boyan continued the development of his concept during the summer of 2012, and revealed it several months later at TEDxDelft 2012.

At iSea Clash of The Concepts, The Ocean Cleanup was awarded the second prize by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. In January of 2013, The Ocean Cleanup Foundation was found, a non-profit organisation which is responsible for the development of our technologies.

© Boyan Slat - carbon neutral website

[CountDeMoney]

FINANCIALLY PROFITABLE? REALLY?

We believe financial advantages greatly improve the chances of the project's execution.
Some interesting concepts have been designed in the past, although they share one property; their executement would cost vast amounts of money. Why not use the plastics retrieved from the 5 gyres for recycling?

According to current estimations – due to the plan's unprecedented efficiency – recycling benefits would significantly outweigh the costs of executing the project. Although the quality of the plastic is somewhat lower than ordinary recycled plastic, it could for example be mixed with other plastics to produce high-quality products. PR through an Ocean Plastics brand can further increase the plastics' value, and would create awareness with the consumer.

Meh.  Keeping the oceans filthy actually increases shareholder value more.  Sorry, kid.  Nice try.

[derspiess]

Every time Seedy posts "shareholder value", I throw 10 plastic shopping bags in the ocean.

[CountDeMoney]

   And it works!

Dow Jones Industrial Average 2 Minute
Dow Jones Indices: .DJI - Sep 16 11:11am ET
15535.16+159.10 (1.03%)

[Berkut]

Every time Seedy posts "shareholder value", I throw 10 plastic shopping bags in the ocean.

I just zone it out. It is 100% of the time just background noise.

[lustindarkness]

If the idea is to Save The Planet! it won't work.

Now if he can make money off this, then it may work while cleaning up the oceans some, I'm all for that.

[CountDeMoney]

Every time Seedy posts "shareholder value", I throw 10 plastic shopping bags in the ocean.

I just zone it out. It is 100% of the time just background noise.

I'll free all the forum hostages once I can score a real job in this economy.  Or I'm taking this forum to Cuba.

[merithyn]

If the idea is to Save The Planet! it won't work.

Now if he can make money off this, then it may work while cleaning up the oceans some, I'm all for that.

Why do you say that, lusti?

[lustindarkness]

If the idea is to Save The Planet! it won't work.

Now if he can make money off this, then it may work while cleaning up the oceans some, I'm all for that.

Why do you say that, lusti?

I think all the Save The World! Glabal Warming Will Burn Us Up! tree hugging companies don't really want to save the world, they just want to make money. And it seems the kid understands this:

We believe financial advantages greatly improve the chances of the project's execution.

[derspiess]

We need more green jobs.

[lustindarkness]

We need more green jobs.

Yes, like bird killing windmills that don't really produce enough power to pay themselves.

[derspiess]

We need more green jobs.

Yes, like bird killing windmills that don't really produce enough power to pay themselves.

I think it was on NPR that I heard an (untinentionally) hilarious story about some bird thought to have been extinct in the UK that everyone was excited about.  They gathered to watch it fly right into a windmill blade

[garbon]

Every time Seedy posts "shareholder value", I throw 10 plastic shopping bags in the ocean.

I just zone it out. It is 100% of the time just background noise.

I'll free all the forum hostages once I can score a real job in this economy.

So you admit you are holding an insincere stance?

[merithyn]

I think all the Save The World! Glabal Warming Will Burn Us Up! tree hugging companies don't really want to save the world, they just want to make money. And it seems the kid understands this:

We believe financial advantages greatly improve the chances of the project's execution.

If you watch his video on YouTube, he specifically says that the only way that this will get funding - and be worthwhile - is if it's found to make money. He also says that he wishes that weren't the case, that he wished people would do it because it's the right thing to do, but he recognizes that that's not how the world works today.

[lustindarkness]

I think all the Save The World! Glabal Warming Will Burn Us Up! tree hugging companies don't really want to save the world, they just want to make money. And it seems the kid understands this:

We believe financial advantages greatly improve the chances of the project’s execution.

If you watch his video on YouTube, he specifically says that the only way that this will get funding - and be worthwhile - is if it's found to make money. He also says that he wishes that weren't the case, that he wished people would do it because it's the right thing to do, but he recognizes that that's not how the world works today.

Yes.