Giant accumulations of debris in the ocean will soon come to an end

Progressive humanity is increasingly transforming the surface of our planet. Large cities, industrial centers, quarries from mining, bridges, roads and landfills - all this has long been an integral part of the terrain. But now people have reached the "cultivation" of the expanses of the oceans relatively recently. The era of plastic, which came after cheap oil, gave rise to such a problem as the floating islands of human waste in the oceans of the Earth.

Giant accumulations of household garbage on the surface of the ocean are 80% plastic. He gets there with the wind and the flow of rivers, which carry out from the land everything that people are too lazy to clean up after themselves. And this, as it turned out, is by no means small. Ocean currents and winds form vortices that collect garbage into large floating landfills. To date, there are 6 such garbage islands in the ocean, 3 in each hemisphere.

In the photo: trash on the coast of Japan

In addition to the aesthetic component and physical danger to birds and animals, which may become entangled or injured in garbage islands, such a high plastic content in the waters of the ocean has other consequences. The fact is that when decomposed by sunlight, dyes and chemicals are released from the plastic that enter the water. These toxins penetrate the organisms of marine life with food, and then along the food chain they reach the person. The presence of plastic in humans is already a proven fact.

Given all of the above, people are seriously concerned about the growing islands of garbage in the ocean. But, if in the case of land-based waste, each landfill is geographically located within the borders of a particular state, then oceanic debris turned out to be nobody and common at the same time. The world community periodically raises this issue, but so far there are not many who want to participate in the material side of the matter.

One of the initiators of cleaning the ocean from plastic was the Dutch student Boyan Slat. He is the founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, an organization dedicated to creating a system for the safe disposal of plastic waste from the ocean. The special design is a trap for plastic and other debris that floats on the surface of the water and collects debris using a conveyor belt. One such installation was deployed off the coast of Japan at the beginning of 2016, where it successfully operates in the testing phase.

In the photo: the construction of Boyan Slata for cleaning the oceans from debris

In the photo: the scheme of the British trap Seabin

But, as in solving many other problems, it is easier to prevent the formation of oceanic debris than subsequently to clear the vast expanses of the oceans from plastic. This is very difficult from a material point of view, and the volumes of accumulated garbage are such that some of it will have time to decompose before the “miracle systems” for cleaning get to it. Therefore, humanity should reconsider its attitude to the limitless production and use of plastic. What is cheap, beautiful and convenient for people does not always benefit our planet.