Controversy over Pacific plastic clean-up

A scheme to clean up plastic in the Pacific Ocean could harm wildlife and release unnecessary greenhouse gases into the air, conservationists have said.

On September 9, the Ocean Cleanup foundation will launch a device to sweep up plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and remove it from the water.

The system uses a 600-metre-long U-shaped floating cylinder with a 3 metre skirt beneath, which moves along with the current, capturing plastic as it goes.

The refuse is corralled into a small area and then picked up by boat every few months, and taken to land for processing and recycling.

The Ocean Cleanup claims that fullscale deployment of their system could clean up 50 per cent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in just five years.

However, marine experts claim the project could do more harm than good.

Dr Sue Kinsey, a senior pollution policy officer at the Marine Conservation Society, said it ‘‘seems likely’’ that wildlife would be affected.

The society also said the time and energy required to collect and return the waste could result in large amounts of greenhouse gases and carbon.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located between California and Hawaii, is the area where plastic rubbish accumulates because of ocean currents.

It is around three times the size of Spain.

A survey of 15 experts, by David Shiffman, an ecologist and shark researcher at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, also found that it was unlikely the device would clean up a significant amount of plastic without harming wildlife.

One in four believed that the entire concept was ‘‘a bad idea with little or no redeeming value’’.