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The Problem with Plastic

When synthetic plastics were first invented, they were seen as an environmental boon. No longer would people need to hunt turtles, elephants, and the like for the materials to make common consumer goods. What looked like economic growth quickly turned into an environmental nightmare as the nearly indestructable material scattered throughout the planet. It's now found atop the highest mountains and in the deepest trenches in our oceans. From pole to pole, plastic is everywhere.

It's not just unsightly, either. It's playing havok on our ecosystem. Birds and sea life are mistaking it for food. It's disturbing reproductive systems and causing the slow starvation of animals who cannot pass what they cannot digest. Humans are not untouched. Not only does plastic pollution impact tourism and coastal communities, plastics have made their way into our diet, too. It's a problem that must be addressed.

Current Approaches

There are a number of organizations that are currently working to address this issue. Naturally, the most effective approach would be to curtail production of new plastics and keep them from entering our waters in the first place. Single-use plastics such as plastic packaging are particularly problematic. An incredibly short useful life combined with an incredibly long lifespan make them more environmental problem than packaging solution. This is compounded by the fact that many of the plastics used are not practically recyclable, either.

On the downstream side of the issue, efforts are underway to remove as much plastic pollution as possible. Some of the most promising clean-up measures have been Ocean Cleanup's large scale clean-up work at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but also their efforts at river and harbor clean-ups. The Great Bubble Barrier is another concept showing promising results with addressing the flow of plastic before it can escape our rivers.

The Problem Persists

Even with these efforts and more, there remains much to be done. One estimate puts the rate of plastic entering the ocean at about a garbage truck load each minute. Meanwhile, plastic production continues to increase. It's clear that clean-ups can't keep up. Systemic changes will be needed if we're to get this problem under control. Still, we must work to remove what plastic we can before it has a chance to break down into smaller, even harder to capture pieces. This problem is quickly becoming an all-hands-on-deck situation.

The ZeroPlus Approach

With clean-ups underway at the big gyres and at the mouths of rivers, the next logical approach would be broadly distributed coastal clean-up efforts. 4Ocean has seen some success by funding this style of clean-up. Direct funding is, of course, limited by the availability of funds.

The vision for ZeroPlus is to develop easy-to-reproduce clean-up tools under an open source model. The preliminary design is for a bamboo-based skimmer system that could be retrofitted to any of the many small outrigger fishing boats found throughout the world.

With access to abundantly renewable bamboo and modest skills, local fishing folk would be able to rig for plastic recovery either on the way to and from fishing waters or during the off-season to care for fish habitats. These are folks who know their local waters best. Clearing the plastic helps keep the fish healthy, reduces plastics in the food supply, and, with the support of the world-wide Precious Plastics community, would ideally provide supplemental income as those recovered plastics are turned back into useful products.

The fun isn't just for the fishing folks. In order to test and develop the system, the plan is to rig it to a towable outrigger-style sailing dinghy (or some approximation of the same, depending on available materials). The primary consideration for doing so is safety while testing; It's better to have a buffer between the support vessel and the test platform until it's clear how the rig will act under loads. The bonus is that a quick de-rig would let the test platform serve double-duty as a tender. This could make the system more practical long-term for the average concerned sailor.

    Key Terms
  • "secured" - purchased, registered, insured, required safety equipment, reasonably confident it won't sink.
  • "minimally functional" - safely sailable, working auxiliary power, functioning head and galley.
  • "initial prototype" - a prototype towable skimmer.
  • "minimal projected budget" - it might take more, but I don't think I can do it for less.