The great Pacific Garbage Patch is a large accumulation of of plastic garbage in the pacific ocean, over 2 times the size of Texas, approximately 7 million tons in weight , 9-10 feet deep, and 80% comes from land. This is a nasty accumulation of garbage polluting our ocean.
I recently watched a 60 minutes segment on a young man named Boyan Slat who came up with an idea as a teenager to help clean up this garbage. He later dropped out of college, and gave a TEDxTalk, and raised 30 million dollars to design and build a device to clean up the clean. Over 5 years the device was built, a large plastic boom and nylon net, and was dragged out to see from San Francisco in September 2018. Unfortunately this project has had major setbacks. In November, Slat revealed that his device had not collected any plastic and and then on New Year’s Eve, we learned that a 60 foot portion of the boom broke off. The whole contraption is now being towed to Hawaii for repairs.
We need to continue to come up with new and innovative ideas to fight/stop pollution and to help clean up our oceans. There are likely to be setbacks, but we can’t afford to stop trying. I am very disappointed by the above news, but I am reminded that I can do my part by reducing waste, stopping the abuse of single-use plastic, and speaking out to help educate anyone who will listen.
Let’s Do This!
–Colin