How to tackle ocean plastic
Plans to build a 71m catamaran designed to scoop up floating waste and then convert it into a gas that powers the vessel have been unveiled, writes Emrhys Barrell.
The £30-million Ocean Saviour is the brainchild of the two founders of TheYachtMarket.com, Richard Roberts and Simon White. The pair were inspired after watching David Attenborough’s BBC series Blue Planet and became determined to produce a boat design that would provide a viable option for sustainably cleaning up the world’s seas.
Speaking to PBO, White said he hopes Ocean Saviour will inspire governments to act.
“We produce an estimated 300 million tonnes of plastic every year, and 8 million tonnes of this ends up in our oceans. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch alone, contains 80,000 tonnes of plastic, covering an area seven times the size of Great Britain,” he said.
“A single Ocean Saviour will clear five tonnes of plastic per day, or 1,800 tonnes per year, which means it would take 40 years to clear just the one Pacific gyre.
“However we see this boat as pointing the way forward for the world’s countries and government agencies to come together to tackle the problem on a much larger scale,” added White.
Ocean Saviour combines existing technologies and new ideas, generated by a team of designers, naval architects and environmental experts. Booms gather the floating waste and steer it to a conveyor belt, where it is finely chopped, then processed through an onboard plasma gasification plant. The gas this produces is used to power the vessel.
The project has seen involvement from the likes of superyacht designer Ricky Smith, David Jones from Just One Ocean, Rory Sinclair from Big Blue Ocean Cleanup and from record-breaking round the world racing legends, Dee Caffari MBE and Mike Golding OBE.
TheYachtMarket.com is currently looking for partners to help it produce the first Ocean Saviour vessel.