Ocean Clean Up Machine – Summary and Reader-response Draft 1
Ocean Clean Up Machine – Summary and Reader-response Draft 1(Edited on 7th February 2020)
In the article, “Boy Genius Boyan Slat’s Giant Ocean Clean-up Machine Is Real”, Schiller (2017) has reported how Boyan Slat’s improved “Ocean Clean-up” system that targets to collect half of trillions plastic waste in the “Pacific Garbage Patch” within the next half a decade.
Boyan Slat has stepped up to introduce his prototype design of an ocean clean-up machine. Unfortunately, Slat’s design of a floater system anchored to deep seabed has sustainability issues that have an impact to cost and time for the whole ocean clean-up operation. Slat discovered a technological solution that replaces the fixed seabed floater with a deep-water skirts system and ready to be deployed in 2018. Schiller has shared that Slat’s company, “The Ocean Clean-up Foundation”, has gained trust and confidence over the past six years. Slat now has a pool of motivated working teams carrying out detailed studies on plastic waste, the ocean movements and working on his machine design. Schiller was convinced by Slat's design that the drag generated by the skirts, propelled automatically by oceanic forces, will produce significant success in cleaning up to half of the great pacific garbage patch in a shorter time with a reasonably low required cost. Slat aims to recycle the plastic waste collected and to receive sponsorships.
There are 2 sides of plastic pollution problems. On one side, there is the floating plastic legacy issue that does not go away by itself. And on the other side is plastic waste still entering the ocean. Schiller’s article features a detailed explanation of Slat’s ocean clean-up machine and promotes its operations. However, his article could have extended to provide awareness on plastic waste generated from human negligence and behaviour that causes impacts to nature, the marine food web and potentially contaminate the human food chain.
The most troubling aspect of the great pacific patch is microplastics. Based on another article from National Geographic (2019), Parker has written her discovery on the horrifying effects on marine life due to plastic waste. Overtime plastic deteriorates from exposure to sun, waves and marine life. Due to its size and colour, marine life often confuses plastic with food causing major damage to their own.
It will be interesting if Schiller could query Slat further if he has other plans other than cleaning up the ocean with his machine. Much of the plastic pollution stemmed from an underdeveloped waste management system. Waste just dropped as litter or disposed of as landfills that were not well contained and ended up into rivers and flows out to the ocean when the seawater tide changes. These could strike readers' interest to spare some thoughts on the plastic waste problem.
As Schiller posted his article in 2017, Slat has already developed a masterplan ahead in 2016 to stop plastic flowing out from the rivers. Slat's river clean-up mission which he called it “close the tap”, was already pre-planned ahead before his ocean clean-up operations in 2018. He has successfully engaged the Indonesian government to propose his 1st major river clean-up project. Schiller could go further to credit Slat and his ocean clean-up team who has been working beyond their goals in developing effective plans and new technologies for the fastest possible reduction in the amount of plastic waste. Slat's plans do not only remove plastics from the ocean but also to tackle them right from the river source before entering the ocean.
References
Schiller (2017). Boy Genius Boyan Slat’s Giant Ocean Cleanup Machine Is Real
Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/40419899/boy-genius-boyan-slats-giant-ocean-cleanup-machine-is-real
Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2019/05/microplastics-impact-on-fish-shown-in-pictures/
The Ocean Clean-up/Rivers (2016). The Ocean Clean-up.
Retrieved from https://theoceancleanup.com/rivers/
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