Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “The Ocean Cleanup’s System 03 Captures Record Amounts of Plastic From the Pacific”.
The ocean cleanup is back in action with its largest and most ambitious ocean. Cleanup system 03 system 03 is massive, spanning a length of 2.5 km across and is currently capturing floating plastic pollution in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch located between the states of California and Hawaii. I spoke with the ocean. Cleanups CEO buy and slat about their newest cleanup system how it works and got a progress report on the current mission. Our cleanup system is comprised out of two parts, so one hand you have the hardware, the actual physical system. That’S out there in the ocean and then, secondly, you have the software, which are the computer models that guide us where and how we tow the system through the PCH. On the hardware side, we have this 2 and 12 km u-shaped barrier that is towed by two ships which funnels the plastic from the ocean surfaces into a collection bag.
We call the retention Zone, it looks very small, but actually it’s five times the length of a school bus. So it’s a big bag uh. Where then the plastic gets retained and then periodically once that’s full.
We take that retention Zone on the deck of one of the ships and empty it and then return it to the Sea, so we can keep collecting. While we do the Sorting on the ship. The main thing that changed with system 3 is the size.
The ocean is pretty big place. So if we want to clean up the Great specific garbage batch, which is twice the size of Texas, we need to cover a very large area per unit of time right. So now it’s system 3, it’s three times the span. So what that means is that we can actually sweep an area the size of a football field every 5 Seconds. Actually, since we started with system 2 in 2021, we’ve seen a a steady increase in the amount ofes we’ve had so the first expedition we did. We caught, I think, about seven tons of plastic and late 2023.
So, 2 years later, we went up to 45 tons in a single trip, and this year we we hope to do even better than that. The magical number that we’re aiming for is 100 kilos per hour. If we hit that, with a a decently sized Fleet of cleanup systems, we can actually clean up the patch within 10 years. Sure, of course, beyond that, we still want to go even higher. You want to get to 200 kilos, 300 kilos Etc, but at least 100 Kil perh mark. You know that really puts us in the realm of hey, we’re we’re ready enough to uh to start the the scale up. System 03 has added some new upgrades: enhancing marine life safety concerns and expanding the amount of plastic pollution they can collect during a deployment we uh increase the depth and the height of the system to avoid any plastic leakage over or under the system. We also introduced 16 cameras and what we call a marine animal safety hatch which, if we see anything that going in the system, we can activate that remotely and we can uh trigger an inflatable Bellow to fill up and go to the surface. And with that open. An Escape Route, we do move slowly at about half your walking speed to essentially give fish and other marine life.
The time to you know to swim away, get out of the way to just introduce another level of safety. The ocean Cleanup Crew consists of more than 40 Personnel, including contractors from mayair marine and the ocean. Cleanup employees aboard two large vessels equipped with a few smaller support vessels. A cleanup Mission currently takes 7 weeks to complete in the spring and summer months, because winter weather is too dangerous and volatile for such a large scale operation. The ocean cleanup utilizes satellite data and Marine scientists to best predict where to find and capture the highest amount of plastic accumulation.
We have the computer models that are fed by by satellite data by measurements, uh that we’ve taken over the years of where the plastic is and with that we built these Advanced Computer models that are almost like a weather forecast for plastic. So it will tell us and the captains of the ships days in advance, uh what the the ideal coordinates are and what the ideal path is. They would would have to follow and that’s, I think, really the um, the special source of the cleanup, because uh without it pu to just randomly go through the ocean.
It would take a long time so really specifically targeting those hotpots where you have these very high density areas. That is the key to effectively cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage bench. These calculations help to maximize the cleanup while system 03 doubles as a weather and data collection platform, bringing back valuable information to help study the conditions in the Pacific Ocean. As the plastic pollution is collected on board the ship, it is then separated by the crew into different categories such as ropes and Nets and larger solid pieces.
The plastic pollution is brought back to Shore and processed and recycled by local recycling organizations. Some of the plastic is pelletized to be reused and remade into new products. Buen announced that the automaker Kia will be getting into the reclaimed plastic game and will work with the ocean cleanup to use the recycled plastic in the production of future automobiles. So, a couple of years ago we launched the these sunglasses, which were really of a pro of concept, show that hey, we can make something beautiful and desirable from this. Basically, the worst waste on Earth.
You know, since then we have partners with Kia the car company to turn this material into uh parts for their electric cars. We’Ll have an announcement about that later this year we are, you know, conversations with other Global Brands to also bring them on board with the cleanup and with that find a um suitable home for all the plastic. Once it’s taken out of the ocean, the Kia thing is very cool.
I love that my wife has a Kia. That’S fantastic! The oceans are not the only focus of the ocean cleanup organization. Every year, heavy rains wash debris from city streets into storm drains which eventually Finds Its way into larger waterways and into the ocean.
The ocean cleanup has been deploying a number of river interceptors all over the world with the goal of cutting off the flow of PL IC pollution before it can reach the open ocean. There are a bunch of different types of Interceptor Technologies being put to use with an ultimate goal of installing 1,000 Interceptor barriers along the highest known, polluting rivers on the planet. The ocean cleanups most recent Interceptor Interceptor 19 was installed in Bangkok, Thailand and is now operational. A few years ago, we started out with not just cleaning up plastic – that’s already in the ocean, but also intercepting plastic in rivers before it reaches the oceans, because what we found was that just 1 % of the world’s Rivers is responsible for about 80 % of All the plastic that flows into the ocean, so by intercepting it in those Rivers, we believe that’s the fastest and most cost effective way to prevent plastic from leaking into the ocean. Literally, just a few weeks ago, we uh we deployed in in Bangkok in the Chao pra river, which is uh this massive iconic river running through all of Bangkok.
It is part of the 1 % most pling rivers, and I think, what’s unique about this river – is its width for us Beyond, just the direct impact that we’re having for for Bangkok and for the Gulf of Thailand uh. This was for us also a unique learning opportunity uh, because you, the conditions, are just very challenging. Bok is now providing us the learnings. We need, because you we’re going to see more Rivers like this in the future.
I myself got to check out Interceptor 007 located in Los Angeles, California, on a sailing trip with my brother-in-law. We got as close as we could, so I can snap some photos of the Interceptor and I can tell you firsthand that the waters Downstream of 007 are clean and pristine, which was awesome to see you can get involved with the ocean cleanup by donating to the Ocean cleanup organization, or simply by talking about it, to raise awareness or by contacting your local officials to let them know that we need Solutions like these for tackling the plastic pollution problem. If we really care about having clean beaches, coastlines and protecting Wildlife, we need to keep the pressure on our elected officials to take action. The ocean cleanup has proven that it can be done and they’re actually doing something about it, which will only benefit mankind and our environment.
If you like, this video, give us a like And subscribe to cnet’s massive YouTube channel and check out my past coverage of the ocean, cleanup interceptors, which are autonomously pulling floating debris out of rivers across the planet. Right now, and thanks for watching CET .