BOOM THAT COULD BUST UP THE PLASTIC GARBAGE PATCH
With around 51 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean, it’s estimated that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.
Illegal dumping on the coast, overflowing landfills blowing rubbish into the sea and the fishing industry are all partly to blame. But according to researchers, 95% of ocean plastics come from just 10 rivers, including the Yangtze, the Nile, the Ganges and the Niger.
Indonesia also has one of the most plastic-polluted rivers in the world – the Citarum, which in april this year was completely blocked by a gigantic raft of plastic. ‘It was over a mile long, stretching from bank to bank. I’ve never seen anything like it,’ says TV presenter liz Bonnin.
around the globe, roughly 2 billion people have no access to proper waste management – so have no option but to throw their plastic waste on the ground or in the water.
Yet several pioneering projects are offering hope. Dutch inventor Boyan Slat, 24, has just launched his Ocean Cleanup system – a 600-metre floating boom that drifts across the sea, funnelling plastic to be collected and then recycled.
‘When I was 16 I went scuba diving in Greece and saw more plastic bags than fish, and I wondered: “Why can’t we clean this up?”’ recalls Boyan. he’s launching his invention in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a mass of rubbish three times the size of france.
‘We hope one day to have around 60 of these systems roaming the Pacific,’ he says.
meanwhile, in Baltimore in the uS, two local engineers have invented mr Trash Wheel – a mechanism that lifts rubbish from the harbour and drops it into a huge container. Since launching in 2014, it’s collected nearly half a million plastic bags.
One of the most ingenious solutions comes from Indonesia, where local David Christian, 25, has designed fast-food packaging made from edible seaweed.
as food packaging accounts for more than a third of all plastic waste in the ocean, the potential of David’s invention is enormous.