The news of a teenage entrepreneur's plans to rid the world's oceans of plastic using an Ocean Cleanup Array has come up against criticism.
Speaking at TEDxDelft, 19-year-old Boran Slat claimed to have developed a technology that could remove much of the 7.25 million tons of plastic from oceans in five years and then recycle the plastic waste. But Stiv Wilson, policy director at ocean conservation non-profit 5Gyres.org, is sceptical.
In an article for Inhabitat, Wilson critiques Slat's project, stressing that the problem is greater than most can comprehend. "I can tell you that the problem of ocean plastic pollution is massive," writes Wilson. "The vast majority of the scientific and advocacy community believe it's a fool's errand - the ocean is big, the plastic harvested is near worthless, and sea life would be harmed."
Biologist Miriam Goldstein agrees. According to Goldstein, Slat's plan has the potential to create more debris, and the array technology could prove particularly hazardous to marine life. She also raises concern as to whether plankton, or small and microscopic life, would be killed during the sifting process.
According to 5Gyres, there is no single solution to the plastic waste problem, but the organisation stresses that preventing this plastic from ever reaching the waterways should be the focus. "The first step in solving the problem is to personally lower your plastic consumption," writes Wilson, adding that one of the most viable options to tackle the existing plastic pandemic is to do so on land.
According to Wilson, Gyre Memory - a phenomenon that occurs naturally in the ocean whereby the gyre will spit out about half its contents upon each orbit - aids this land-based approach.
"These contents will then either enter another current or gyre, or wash up on land. As this repeats, it means that, eventually, all the plastic in the ocean will be spit out, which is why you find plastic fragments on every beach in the world. Beach cleanup is gyre cleanup," Wilson says.
"The public, for their part, loves the thought of a quick fix and wants to believe that a 'boy genius' can come along and solve a problem that all the old crusty PHDs can't. It's a great story, but it's just a story," Wilson concludes.
Slat is undeterred by the cynics. He founded The Ocean Cleanup Foundation earlier this year and is looking to partner with biologists, engineers and philanthropists to turn his dream into a reality.
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