Reader Response #Draft 2 - Ocean Cleanup Machine
The article "Boy Genius Boyan Slat's Giant Ocean Cleanup Machine Is Real" by Schiller (2017) tells the story of Boyan Slat and the culmination of his efforts in making his vision of an Ocean Clean-up Machine a reality. Oceanographer Charles Moore first spotted the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 1977, and since then, the Patch has proliferated to the point of having areas where one could traverse on. Schiller mentions Slat's profession as an inventor, and his innovative design involves booms in a floating arrangement of up to 50 devices of 0.6 miles each. The article further mentions that he anticipates his project to amass tens of thousands of tons of waste a year to be disposed of monthly through these devices. Slat has since announced that his project will commence waste elimination from the Patch in 2018. In addition, Schiller points out that Slat aims to recycle plastic waste into commodities such as chairs and eyewear and attract companies to sponsor each boom with eye-catching logos to aid his company in lowering costs. However, the Ocean Clean-up project may not be the most feasible solution due to disadvantages associated with unsustainable funding, high costs and underperformance of boom devices.
The first and most significant disadvantage is the underperformance of boom devices. The goal of the Ocean Clean-up project is "to clear 90% of floating plastic from the world's oceans by 2040." (Dickie, 2021). Yet, given the amount of attention, funding and time received by the project, the results thus far have been underwhelming. The article "Ocean Cleanup struggles to fulfill promise to scoop up plastic at sea" by Dickie (2021) explains that throughout the 120 hours of deployment of its new "System 002", only 8.2 tonnes of plastic was collected, which is less than an average collection capacity of a garbage truck. Another article "Scooping plastic out of the Ocean is a losing game" by Stuart (2021) mentions that within the project's estimated 20-year span, the work done by Ocean Clean-up has had no discernible impact on the amount of plastic pollution in the ocean. Stuart also states that "to clean up a fraction of one percent of the total, the Ocean Cleanup would have to run nonstop until 2150. Even when Hohn artificially increased the fleet to 200 booms, the project still only recovered five percent of the floating plastic" (2021). The overall outlook of the project remains grim, and the technology to efficiently eliminate plastic pollution remains considerably distant.
The second disadvantage is the unsustainable funding of the ocean clean-up project in the long term. As a non-profit foundation, most of the funding for the ocean clean-up project comes from philanthropic, commercial and governmental donations. The Ocean Clean-up project is primarily "funded by cash donations and corporations including Coca-Cola (KO.N), as well as in-kind donors like A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO), had fixed assets over $51 million (43 million euros) at the end of 2020" (Dickie, 2021). Given the high costs of research and innovation, funding purely through donations is not a practical and sustainable resolution for the Ocean Clean-up project.
Although the ocean clean-up project may not be the most viable solution at its current stage, the project has contributed immensely to educating the public on its anti-pollution endeavours and "has helped spread awareness of the problem of plastic pollution. The organization has improved the scientific understanding of the kinds of plastic in the ocean and where it's coming from." (Stuart, 2021). Their efforts to spread awareness can be most notably seen through its collaboration in the TeamSeas campaign, where "#TeamSeas organizers have enlisted thousands of content creators in 145 countries — with more than 1 billion followers combined — to promote the effort." (Spangler, 2021). Such media outreach has helped put the Ocean Clean-up project at the forefront of anti-pollution efforts and sparked meaningful public discourse on plastic pollution.
In conclusion, the ocean clean-up project has good and ambitious intentions to eradicate growing trash gyres in our oceans, seas and rivers entirely. Its efforts thus far have garnered significant public attention and project funding. However, the current disadvantages far outweigh the benefits it brings. Therefore, it remains to be seen if the Ocean Clean-up project can further develop into a viable solution and achieve its goals.
Reference
Schiller, B. (2017, June 30). Boy genius boyan slat's giant ocean cleanup machine is real. Fast
Company.
https://www.fastcompany.com/40419899/boy-genius-boyan-slats-giant-ocean-cleanup-m
Dickie, G. (2021, September 16). Ocean cleanup struggles to fulfill promise to scoop up plastic
at sea. Reuters.
Stuart, R. (2021, September 21). Scooping plastic out of the Ocean is a losing game. Hakai
Magazine.
https://hakaimagazine.com/features/scooping-plastic-out-of-the-ocean-is-a-losing-game/
Spangler, T. (2021, October 29). YouTubers MrBeast, Mark Rober reteam for 'teamseas' charity
fundraiser to clean up trash from Marine Environments. Variety. https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/mrbeast-mark-rober-teamseas-1235100310/
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