THE GREAT OCEAN CLEANUP

In March of this year I wrote the column “Recycling is not the answer”. No doubt on glancing at the headline it raised a few eyebrows. But on reading it, hopefully everyone understood where I was coming from. Each year in the UK we produce around 27 million tonnes of household waste. We recycle a lot of it. We are not as good as some countries, but miles ahead of other parts of the world. I’ve been privately passionate about this subject for around 20 years. It upsets me, it annoys me.

Even if 99% of what we use could be recycled, would I be happy? No, not anymore. Don’t get me wrong, recycling is good, it is vital, and more countries should be pressured to do it. But recycling is not the answer.

I used to feel good when I recycled, but I’ve come to realise it’s not enough, it’s just a sticking plaster to a much bigger problem. We’ve got to stop producing this stuff in the first place. I accept, plastic is an extremely useful product indeed. But there’s plastic and there’s plastic. There’s the plastic that goes into making this laptop I am typing on. I will use it for maybe four years, then recycle it. The really bad plastic is the singleuse, chuck-it-away stuff. That’s my beef. And even if we recycle all our single-use plastic, it’s not the answer, it’s time to stop producing this pointless waste of Earth’s resources in the first place.

If we can split the atom, surely to goodness we can produce a packaging that is totally biodegradable and use it for all products?

While millions of us do care, I’d say the vast majority don’t. See my photo above on page 21. It is from a river that runs through the beautiful Spanish town of Orihuela, where I am. Mother Nature on one side and on the other – evidence of stupid, selfish humans.

As we all now know, millions of tons of our discarded plastic eventually ends up in the sea. Even if someone throws away a plastic wrapper on land, in a city, how could that possibly end up in the ocean? Easy. It gets washed into a drain, blown into a river, and finally, ends up in the sea.

But selfish, unthinking humans and endless production of single-use plastic aside, all hope is not lost. I first came across this company last year and am truly fascinated by them and their work. They are the good guys, and they should get all our support.

The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organisation that has brilliantly developed technology to extract plastic from our oceans and major rivers.

They estimate that roughly 1,000 major rivers are responsible for 80% of the plastic that ends up in the great oceans. Once that plastic ends up in the sea, it forms gigantic garbage patches. The problem though, as ugly as it is, is not the large floating plastic bottle, it’s once the sun and sea break it down into microscopic pieces. This affects the ecosystem, gets digested by the fish we eat and will eventually affect our own health. Madness isn’t it?

The great Pacific garbage patch, situated between California and Hawaii, is the

largest of the five known plastic accumulation zones in our oceans. At 1.6 million square kilometres, it is an area three times the size of France. Just contemplate that, floating in the sea, a monstrous pile of our thrown-away plastic, three times bigger than France.

When Ocean Cleanup did their research, they estimated that there was 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic there. Sickening. Shameful.

But how on Earth can they solve the problem? Volunteers walking along riverbanks picking up plastic by hand? Or people in small boats with nets, scooping up plastic from the sea? No. Meet the Interceptor. The following text is taken from their website.

“The Interceptor is The Ocean Cleanup’s answer for river plastic waste. It is the first scalable solution to prevent plastic from entering the world’s oceans from rivers. It is 100% solar powered, extracts plastic autonomously, and is capable of operating in the majority of the world’s most polluting rivers.

“River waste flowing with the current is guided by the barrier towards the opening of the Interceptor. Thanks to the Interceptor’s catamaran design, the water flow path is optimised to pass through the system, carrying the plastic on to the conveyor belt.

“The current moves the debris on to a conveyor belt, which continuously extracts the debris from the water and delivers the waste to the shuttle. A shuttle automatically distributes the debris across six dumpsters.

“Using sensor data, the containers are filled equally until they reach full capacity. The Interceptor can store up to 50m3 of trash before needing to be emptied. This means it’s capable of operating even in the most polluted rivers all over the world. When the interceptor is almost full, it automatically sends a text message to the local operators to come and collect the waste. Operators then remove the barge, bring it to the side of the river, empty the dumpsters, send off the debris to local waste-management facilities, and return the barge back into the Interceptor.”

Brilliant. Genius. There is hope after all. To see this awesome piece of engineering in full flow, you really need to visit their website theoceancleanup.com and watch their video clips. For sure, it will sadden you to see the extent of this human-made problem, but it does also give you hope and encouragement.

But we have to get back to the root of the problem, ie we individual humans. In poor Asian countries, where there is scant regard for the environment, it must start with education and laws. Governments must be pushed into action, and individuals must stop throwing away that Coke bottle. In fact, let’s go back a step further and force the manufactures to stop making nonbiodegradable products in the first place.

Personally, I’d also like to see all countries have clean, drinkable tap water. It’s doable and essential for health. Sadly, in many poor regions that I visit, their water is definitely not drinkable, so everyone everyday buys bottled water. They drink said bottled water, and of course then because there is no recycling, throw away the plastic, which either ends up choking our Earth in landfill, or ends up swirling around in the sea destroying our oceans.

In the departures area at Aberdeen airport, you can now fill up your own reusable bottle from a special water dispenser, and it’s free.

Sorry, but I’d ban single-use bottled water. The entire world should ban mass-produced single-use bottled water. But what about those countries where people simply cannot drink the tap water? I get that, for I’ve been to many of them. But it’s not rocket science, we should invest in making the entire world’s tap water safe and drinkable. We should also install water fountains and fill-up areas in every street of every city and town for folks to fill up for free with their own reusable containers.

Surely, for human health and saving our planet, this should be right at the top of the world’s to do list? But it’s not. Why? Not enough people care, that’s why. There always seems to be enough cash for military spending though...

I wish the guys at Ocean Cleanup all the luck in the world. However, the buck stops with us individuals. For if we didn’t produce it, and then without a care in the world throw away our plastic junk, there wouldn’t be a problem in the first place.

It really is that simple.

IT’S TIME TO STOP PRODUCING THIS POINTLESS WASTE OF THE EARTH’S RESOURCES

ENVIRONMENT: The Ocean Cleanup in operation. Picture courtesy of The Ocean Cleanup.

The Interceptor cleaning up waterways, and a plasticclogged river in the Spanish town Orihuela.