Who

For my initial project I was interested in doing something that while has potential for
profitability is largely focused on the social aspect of it. For this project that social aspect would
be cleaning up the ocean. This is important to me and others especially in Florida as the large
ecosystem of life we have is greatly affected by trash that washes ashore but more important
trash and especially plastics which take a long time to decompose end up under the water on the
surface of it making swimming a hazard for people and a danger to much of the ocean life
around us. Along with Florida almost the entire rest of the world is affected by this with the
foremost groups of people being those who live along the coasts and other water ways and
sources connected to the ocean
What
For this project I looked into some past efforts to clean up the ocean and while searching I came
across a company called the ocean cleanup. For this company, which is a nonprofit organization,
they created something called the interceptor and what this machine is and what it does is
focused on preventing more pollution compared to cleaning what is already out there. The
interceptor is especially a boat with a large barrier on the surface of the water extending out from
it which collects trash as it flows into the ocean following the current of the river so by
positioning an interceptor at the base or the river where water flows into the ocean it
automatically collects trash while a conveyer belt which is partially submerged gathers the trach
and dumps it into a large container on the boat. This is very efficient as much of the process is
automated and works with solar power to run the conveyer and the rest of the boat. Along with
this the organization partnered with the local government to properly dispose of the trash that is
collected in a responsible manner. While this organization and plan have cleaned 15 million
pounds of trash so far from the rivers the next step beyond this is cleaning the ocean, or more
accurately the sections of the ocean where the largest amounts of trash build up to have
maximum efficiency.
Where
One of the worst and most well-known of these groupings of garbage is the great pacific
garbage patch. This year in 2023 the patch is considered to be roughly 620 thousand square miles
in between California and Japan that ride the currents of the ocean in a cyclical pattern. The great
pacific garbage patch is actually made up of three distinct separate sections of parts of the
oceans, which are the east garbage patch, the west garbage patch and the sub-tropical
convenance zone which is also known as the garbage highway as it transfers garbage between
the two major clumping groups or patches. Part of that is what make it so hard to clean,
alongside being largely composed of micro plastics that change the waters color rather than sit
on the surface of the water and are easily seen is a very difficult problem to solve that requires
water treatment and collection and gathering and forming up the micro plastics to make it easier
to clean a hard to achieve goal. To go along side all that scientists estimate that roughly 70
precent of the garbage is actually under the water or along the ocean floor creating a kind of
iceberg where more is there then is actually visible that regularly “melts” or drops trash form the
huge pile its formed into down to the ocean floor. While these are all major points to look at
another issue is that due to most of the contamination being invisible to the naked eye except for
the discoloration of the water satellite imagery struggles to locate the clumps of surface level and
large visible trash due to the discoloration of the water along with the fact that since it is much
less visible makes the great garbage path difficult to clean. Along with this most of the trash that
gathers in the great pacific garbage patch along with other garbage clumps around the ocean is
plastic.
How
How plastic is bad is because of how long it takes to break down and can cause many problems
for the digestive systems of many animals if large quantities are consumed. This is seen as sea
turtles sometimes believe plastic bags to be jellyfish but besides that the micro plastics that build
up in the body of other animals around the ocean can even cause death and some of these
animals make their way to our dinner table. Many of the microplastics seen or rather that we
don’t see come from the slow breakdown of the ones we do see including bottles along with
other plastic items that degrade and realizes the plastic into the ocean. So, while microplastics
are important they are difficult to control, clean gather and dispose of along with being the end
product of the oceanic economy of pollution. For my social venture the initial focus would be on
surface level and visible plastics, as these while they may affect less as a base item, they do
breakdown to become part of the larger problem. Using the technology available for the
interceptor model large oceanic boats and rafts could be stationed along the ocean current where
most of the plastics and trash flow through.
Why
This would help with the pollution and contamination of plastic in the ocean, however in order
for this venture to run it would require funding. An idea beyond these self-sustaining interceptors
would be large oceanic rigs similar to oil rigs. However, these would have the purpose of sorting
and searching through the trash collected to isolate the plastic. With the plastic separated extra
trash could be disposed of in an efficient and responsible way using the rigs to collect the excess
trash to ship it to a disposal plant. Along with that the plastic gathered from the ocean would help
provide the materials to be refurbished and remade into other plastic products. In this while the
plastic would not be fully removed from the world it could be re used and less would be needed
creating a cleaner ocean and world. The sale of those plastic products would help to keep the
ocean rafts and rigs running in order to create a self-sustaining environment where plastics are
used then recycled and remade into something else. With extra profits and more sales of the
recycled plastics eventual water cleaners and purifiers could be produced to help with the micro
plastics scattered in the water which could be used to make more products and in doing so would
clean the oceans as well as the water could be cleaner as micro plastics could be formed together
to create a new product. While this is not a permanent solution is creating a point that prevents
the ocean from further pollution and allows for people to maintain the world until a more
premiant way is found to repair what has been done and restore the oceans.