Great Pacific Garbage Patch: Ocean Cleanup criticism

Boyan
Slat talks to reporters before the Ocean Cleanup launches their
first array.
The Ocean Cleanup /
Pierre Augier

• On Saturday, September 8, the
  Ocean Cleanup launched the first of the arrays they hope to
  use to clear plastic pollution from the Great Pacific Garbage
  Patch.
• There’s a stunning amount of plastic in the oceans, with much
  of it concentrated in one of five regions, called gyres, like
  the Great
  Pacific Garbage Patch.
• Dutch innovator Boyan
  Slat started the Ocean Cleanup to design ways to clean these
  regions.
• But while many find Slat’s efforts to clean up plastic
  inspiring, experts have also raised serious questions about the
  project.
• “There will always be people saying things can’t be done,”
  said Slat.

For the first time ever, the massive 2,000-foot-long array that
Dutch 24-year-old Boyan Slat created to clean
plastic out of the world’s oceans is being put to the test.

Five years ago, Slat founded his organization, the Ocean Cleanup.
The group has spent its time designing a system to pull floating
plastic out of the
Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the largest of five ocean
regions known as gyres where plastic pollution from all over the
world congregates.

It’s an ambitious goal, and one that’ll be hard to achieve, if
it’s possible at all. But as the Cleanup has become more
prominent in recent years, serious
criticisms of the project have also emerged.

Marine scientists and plastic pollution experts who have
criticized the project are also interested in reducing plastic
pollution in the ocean. But they argue that by focusing on a
relatively expensive, hard-to-pull off technological innovation,
the Cleanup may take attention away from necessary efforts to
stop plastic from getting into the water in the first place.

Some say that even if it works as planned, it’s unlikely to
really do much to reduce the amount of plastic in the oceans
overall. And some critics argue that the cleaning systems could
do more harm than good if they attract marine life that eat or
get caught up in plastic, or if the arrays break apart when
facing the extreme conditions of the Pacific.

On September 8th, after five years of research, modeling, and
prototype, the
Ocean Cleanup tugged the first of what it hopes will eventually
be 60 arrays out under the Golden Gate Bridge and into the
Pacific.

“I think if you look at this sort of technology, every new
invention has been met with skepticism and pessimistic views,”
Slat told Business Insider. “There will always be people saying
things can’t be done. And history shows that time and time again
things ‘couldn’t be done’ and they were done … I think asking
questions is very valid, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do
it.”

Boyan Slat standing behind
a pile of ocean plastic. The material was collected by volunteers
in Hawaii, and has been used for recycling
research.

The Ocean
Cleanup

Responding to doubts

Slat said he believes that the Cleanup has answers to the
questions posed by critics, though he also says he has some of
the same big questions.

On the most basic level, there’s a question about whether or not
the systems will collect plastic in the first place. The systems
are made of up a 2,000-foot floating pipe, shaped like a U, with
wall that goes down 10 feet attached to the bottom. In theory,
this should corral plastic inside the U, but whether it’ll do so
effectively or efficiently, capturing small pieces of plastic,
remains to be seen.

“It’s still not proven technology, and in the next months it has
to do what it has to do,” he said.

Some ocean researchers have questioned whether this massive
system can survive the massive waves and storms that roll through
the Pacific. Slat says that is something the Cleanup is hoping to
see as storms arrive throughout the fall and winter.

“It’ll be an exciting six months ahead, for sure,” he said.

As a large plastic structure itself, it could get broken up and
become a lot more ocean plastic debris, oceanographer Kara
Lavender Law of the Sea Education Association told
Wired. Plus, it could gradually shed more plastic particles
into the ocean over time, she said.

A survey
of 15 experts in ocean plastic pollution found that many
were concerned the system would attract and kill marine life.
Even though the Cleanup has tweaked its designs to help deal with
these problems — it’s just a solid wall corralling plastic now,
not any sort of netting that could entangle animals — animals
will still be drawn to a floating mass and may end up entangled
in the debris.

The Ocean Cleanup posted a response to that survey and has
conducted an Environmental
Impact Assessment. They’ve also made changes to the
system and said they are willing to redesign the system as
needed.

The Ocean Cleanup / Pierre
Augier

Making a dent in a huge problem

Perhaps the biggest question is how much of a dent this system
can make in the gigantic ocean plastic pollution problem.

According to some experts, like George
Leonard, chief scientist at Ocean Conservancy,
and Eben
Schwartz, marine debris program manager for the California
Coastal Commission, only 3-5% of the more than eight million tons
of plastic that pours into the ocean every year makes it way to
the surface of gyres like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The
rest of it either washes back towards shores or breaks apart into
smaller and smaller pieces spread throughout the ocean.

Slat disputes this assessment, saying “there’s no proper
quantification of the amount of plastic below the surface,” and
that while researching the gyres, the Ocean Cleanup found
significant amounts of plastic floating near the surface of the
regions. Earlier this year, researchers affiliated with the
organization published a study that estimated there is close to
80,000 tons of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Ocean scientists like Leonard say that even though they’re
skeptical about the project, they hope
to be proven wrong.

Even if the array can collect plastic, it’ll be just one part of
a much larger solution, which will involve efforts to manage
waste and prevent plastic from getting into the water. Many
pollution experts say that will require a cultural shift away
from the use of single-use plastics in the first place.

Slat believes a technological innovation is more likely to
succeed than a cultural change, especially when considering the
massive scale of the problem.

“I generally also think that if you want a fast solution it’s
best to work with human nature than against human nature. I think
technology is really the best way to do that. What humans aren’t
good at is trying to consume less, to consume less plastic, to
not be lazy,” he said.

But he knows that plastic pollution needs to be stopped at the
source, too — and hopes innovative techniques can help solve all
aspects of the plastic problem.

“Big problems require big solutions and that’s what we hope to
do,” he said. “Of course, it’s not just cleaning up what’s out
there, it’s doing both that and preventing more from entering the
oceans.”