Cleanup starts chomping into 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' plastic

CASPER, Wyo. — A company called “The Ocean Cleanup” says they have now demonstrated that their technology can help clean plastics and microplastics out of the ocean.

They announced on Wednesday, Oct. 2 that their “System 001/B is successfully capturing and collecting plastic debris.”

“After one year of testing, we have succeeded in developing a self-contained system in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that is using the natural forces of the ocean to passively catch and concentrate plastic, thereby confirming the most important principle behind the cleanup concept that was first presented by Boyan Slat at a TEDx conference in October 2012,” the company said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that the term “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” is a bit of a misnomer.

“Garbage patches aren’t a solid patch,” the NOAA says. “The name conjures images of a floating landfill in the middle of the ocean, with miles of bobbing plastic bottles and rogue yogurt cups.”

“While it’s true that these areas have a higher concentration of plastic than other parts of the ocean, much of the debris found in these areas are small bits of plastic, or microplastics, smaller than 5mm in size that are suspended throughout the water column.”

The Ocean Cleanup says their technology is capable of capturing microplastics as small as small as 1mm in size.

If what they say is accurate, that technology could play an important role in the Earth’s oceans.

“Microplastics are nearly ubiquitous today in the marine environment and may come from larger pieces of plastic that have broken down over time, from fleece jackets or plastic microbeads added to face scrubs,” the NOAA says. “The impacts of these microplastics on marine life is an area of active research.”

City Editor More by Brendan LaChance