The Ocean Cleanup

[negah 26]

http://www.theoceancleanup.com/

Theese guys have a plan how to reduce the pollution of oceans with plastic waste by using currents, which will transport the waste into floating barriers where it can be effectively gathered.

IMO its a great idea, however as already said on the website, it does not solve the problem entirely. And of course funding is another problem.

So what do you think about it?

[Tonci87 163]

Those barriers would have to be huge to be of any effect....

And what about the fish? Sorry but I see this more as a kickstarter to raise enough money to start a company, than a campaign to reduce waste in the oceans.

[Degman 73]

You understand that these barriers are on surface only ?

[.kju 3245]

Not sure if vice/motherboard also has these in English:

http://motherboard.vice.com/de/read/the-ocean-clean-up

http://motherboard.vice.com/de/read/interview-mit-boyan-slat

Use google translate - or check the pics.

[Tonci87 163]

You understand that these barriers are on surface only ?

Yeah and that is why they make even less sense. Yes a lot of plastic floats on the surface, but much much more floats beneath it. This project simply isn´t effective for the environment. However I think it can be very rewarding for the company that does it if they recycel all that waste and I think that this is the real motivation behind this.

[Beagle 684]

Yeah and that is why they make even less sense. Yes a lot of plastic floats on the surface, but much much more floats beneath it. This project simply isn´t effective for the environment. However I think it can be very rewarding for the company that does it if they recycel all that waste and I think that this is the real motivation behind this.

Indeed, Waste mining is really becoming interesting in the near future especially considering all the electronic devices containing gold and rare metals that were simply dumped in the 60's - 90's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landfill_mining

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2011/may/27/landfill-mining-waste-energy

Edited June 29, 2014 by Beagle

[negah 26]

That waste mining concept is a good idea. It also shows what can be done with all that plastic waste floating in the oceans. Those two concepts can be combined I think.

[vilas 477]

i do not know how it works in different countries, but in European Union countries we have different waste bins (since few years) for each type of material (glass waste bin, paper, metal, plastic, other http://śmieci.pl/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/kosze.png ),

i heard some time ago that few biggest industrial countries (China, USA) were simply throwing waste to ocean in the past, i do not know if it was true, but i remember such info from TV,

for sure clean water is basic thing that human need

[Tonci87 163]

Yeah so the question still stands. Is this an honest project that wants to clean the oceans, or is this kickstarter just a way to collect money to start a waste mining company? I think it is the second.

[nodunit 397]

I'd air on the side of caution for any kickstarter, its not as though people haven't used kick starting programs in the past with a reason as a facade..*coughkony2012cough*

[Bee8190 10]

Their intentions are admirable ( at the first glance at least ) and either way it's about time we started to look around us but it's probably too late anyway...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-21119774

http://www.globalresearch.ca/navy-dumped-thousands-of-tons-of-radioactive-waste-into-the-atlantic-ocean/5362499

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQpO6flJaEE

[Tonci87 163]

Well you see the big plastic bags that float on the surface are not really the main problem. The much bigger problem is the huge ammount of small platic particels that float underwater. Fish eat them and they get in their blood, and then we eat the fish...

[nodunit 397]

Iiit's the circle of liiiiiife... Mmm plastic tasting fish, I think we call them mud cats down here.

[negah 26]

Well you see the big plastic bags that float on the surface are not really the main problem. The much bigger problem is the huge ammount of small platic particels that float underwater. Fish eat them and they get in their blood, and then we eat the fish...

Yeah but those small plastic particles originate from the big plastic parts that are dissolved under the impact of the salty water. So if we start gathering the big parts before they get dissolved, we might reduce the amount of small particles after some time.