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Giant Trap Deployed To Catch Plastic Littering the Pacific Ocean Isn't Working (cbsnews.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the A-for-effort dept.

In September, a nonprofit deployed a multimillion-dollar floating structure designed to corral plastic debris littering the Pacific Ocean. But, according to CBS News, the 2,000-foot-long structure hasn't picked up any plastic waste. Slashdot reader pgmrdlm shares the report: A floating device sent to corral a swirling island of trash in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii has not swept up any plastic waste. But the young innovator behind the project said Monday that a fix was in the works. Boyan Slat, 24, who launched the Pacific Ocean cleanup project, said the speed of the solar-powered barrier isn't allowing it to hold on to the plastic it catches. The plastic barrier with a tapered 10-foot-deep screen is intended to act like a coastline, trapping some of the 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic that scientists estimate are swirling in the patch, while allowing marine life to safely swim beneath it. The garbage patch isn't an island and it's even difficult to see with the naked eye, "60 Minutes" reported in September -- it's a vast soup of floating debris, much of it tiny and below the surface.

5 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Even if it worked... by 110010001000 · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...it wouldn't make a difference. 86 million tons of plastic is dumped into the ocean every year. You can't build enough of these to even make a small dent (even if they worked 100% optimally). But some hipster got his kickstarter going and everyone can feed good about themselves while they sip their plastic water bottles.

  2. Re:He needs to talk to Musk by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here are some photos of "rivers of trash" flowing into the ocean.

    As long as this continues, it is absurd to send ships thousands of miles out to sea to strain a few microparticles out of the ocean.

    The place to stop pollution is at the source.

  3. Re:Or they'll fix it, without a new $100 billion t by citizenr · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you research it further you will learn its a family run enterprise build to scam environment grants.

    --
    Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
  4. Re:It's almost as if simple answers by novakyu · · Score: 1, Informative

    And she would have been the best man in the project, too, if she hadn't died before the start of WWII from radiation poisoning. (I presume she would have emigrated to U.S. to flee Nazi persecution, as many good men in physics and chemistry did.)

  5. Re:He needs to talk to Musk by thegarbz · · Score: 4, Informative

    Especially since we know that 90% of the plastic in the ocean is deposited there from just 10 rivers.

    Except it's not. 90% of the plastic that reaches the ocean FROM RIVERS comes from just 10 rivers. The actual number you're looking for is closer to 25%. We discussed this only yesterday: https://www.scientificamerican...