Dutch inventors roll out river plastic clean-up barge

Yahoo – AFP, October 26, 2019

The model on display was the fourth to be built and is due to be sent to
the Dominican Republic (AFP Photo/Robin UTRECHT)

The Hague (AFP) - A Dutch non-profit group committed to ridding the world's waters of plastic, Saturday unveiled their latest invention, a floating garbage-collection barge called "The Interceptor".

It is built by The Ocean Cleanup, who say it will "close the tap" on the greatest source of garbage reaching the oceans: rivers.

The barge, which will be anchored in polluted rivers, is capable of scooping up to 50 tonnes of garbage per day floating downstream, said its inventor, 25-year-old Boyan Slat.

"Under the right conditions we think it could even achieve double that," said Slat, who is the CEO and founder of The Ocean Cleanup.

"The Interceptor" resembles a large houseboat attached to a curved barrier. It is 24 metres (78 feet) long, solar-driven, fully autonomous and able to collect plastic in rivers around the clock, Slat said.

Placed at strategic positions in a river system, its barrier directs plastic to the waiting "mouth" of the barge, from where it rolls up a conveyor belt and is dumped into one of six dumpsters.

The barge has a capacity to carry 50 cubic metres of waste plastic, the equivalent of 271,000 Rubik's cubes, said Slat.

Once full, an onboard computer sends a message to local operators to pull out the dumpsters and empty them "as easily as you would clean your vacuum," Slat said at the unveiling of the machine.

The project will tackle 1,000 of the most polluting rivers in the world "within five years", which contribute to 80 percent of global plastic pollution, he added.

Two of the machines are already up and running: one in Jakarta, Indonesia, and another in Malaysia. A third is being prepared for deployment in Vietnam.

Slat used a fourth Interceptor for the presentation in the port city of Rotterdam's harbour on Saturday. This one will be sent to the Dominican Republic, he said.

Earlier this month, The Ocean Cleanup announced that a special ship designed to clean the world's oceans had harvested its first plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The Interceptor at work in Malaysia. Photo: The Ocean CleanUp

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• Shortage of fresh/drinking water: Invention to make salt from salt water magnetic and remove it with water desalination process in high volumes
• Pollution on Earth: 1 - Stop killing the environment! / 2 - The rise of temperature on Earth is “temporary” and is part of the "regular" Watercycle.
• Replacement of current fossil energy source: Use of magnetics based (small/big) engines to produces electricity / free energy
• Plastic pollution in the oceans: Invention to remove the plastics gradually from the oceans

Ocean Cleanup move to the Pacific, ‘a milestone’ says Dutch inventor

Photo: The Ocean Cleanup

New prototype plastic catcher works, Ocean Clean Up group says

DutchNews, October 2, 2019

Photo: Ocean Clean-up

The latest prototype of a Dutch invention to catch plastic floating in the ocean is working, say researchers with The Ocean Cleanup, which has been testing the device some 2,000 kilometres off the Californian coast. 

The new prototype is successfully catching and keeping plastic in all shapes and sizes, the organisation said on Tuesday. 

Earlier versions of the plastic catcher did not manage to hold on to the plastic,  the organisation’s spokesman Joost Dubois told broadcaster NOS. ‘The problem was that we couldn’t control the difference in speed of the plastic and the device. You need a big difference in speed in order to keep hold of the plastic,’ he said. 

The solution to the problem was to use a sea anchor in the shape of a parachute which made the plastic catcher move more slowly than the plastic. Smaller plastic pieces could then be caught in the device more easily, including micro plastics of a millimetre in size. 

The Ocean Cleanup is planning a second version of the new plastic catcher next year which will be able to collect more plastic over a longer period of time. Inventor Boyan Slat and his team aim to eventually halve the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, some 1.6 million square kilometers in size, between California and Hawaii. 

Slat came up with his Ocean Cleanup project in 2012 and spent the next five years developing it, for which he has collected over €30m in funding.

VIDEO: Boyan Slat, the 25-year-old Dutch founder of @TheOceanCleanup, explains how the ship was able to harvest a range of plastics from the ocean pic.twitter.com/EjEfMOIjqS

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 2 oktober 2019

#UPDATE A special ship designed to clean the oceans has harvested its first plastic from the #GreatPacificGarbagePatch since setting sail from San Francisco last month, its Dutch inventor says https://t.co/yFNZwykhJZ #TheOceanCleanup

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 2 oktober 2019

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• Shortage of fresh/drinking water: Invention to make salt from salt water magnetic and remove it with water desalination process in high volumes
• Pollution on Earth: 1 - Stop killing the environment! / 2 - The rise of temperature on Earth is “temporary” and is part of the "regular" Watercycle.
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Ocean Cleanup move to the Pacific, ‘a milestone’ says Dutch inventor

Photo: The Ocean Cleanup

Mussels, 'super-filters' that can help beat water pollution

Yahoo – AFP, Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS, August 18, 2019

Like canaries in a coal mine, mussels have long been used as 'bio-indicators' of
the health of the seas, lakes and rivers they inhabit (AFP Photo/JOEL SAGET)

Paris (AFP) - Seafood lovers who prize the mussel for its earthy taste and succulent flesh may be unaware of its growing potential in the fight against water pollution.

The mussel is the hoover of the sea, taking in phytoplankton for nourishment along with microplastics, pesticides and other pollutants -- which makes it an excellent gauge.

One day, it may also be pressed into service to cleanse water.

"It's a super-filter in the marine world, filtering up to 25 litres of water a day," says marine biologist Leila Meistertzheim.

"It's a real model of bioaccumulation of pollutants generally speaking."

As they pump and filter the water through their gills in order to feed and breathe, mussels store almost everything else that passes through -- which is why strict health rules apply for those destined for human consumption.

Like canaries in a coal mine, mussels have long been used as "bio-indicators" of the health of the seas, lakes and rivers they inhabit.

Little-known pollutants can turn up to join the usual suspects, with increasing attention paid to microplastics containing bisphenol A and phthalates, both thought to be endocrine disruptors.

Meistertzheim heads a study for France's Tara Ocean Foundation using mussels to gauge the health of the estuaries of the Thames, Elba and Seine rivers.

The mussels, placed in fish traps, are submerged in the waters for a month before researchers dissect them to determine what chemical substances lurk in their tissues.

The idea of deploying mussels across the oceans to absorb ubiquitous microplastics is just a dream for now, but for other pollutants, the bivalves are already at work.

"In some places, mussels are used, as well as oysters, to cleanse the sea of pesticides, for example," Meistertzheim notes.

E. coli busters

Richard Luthy, an environmental engineer from California's Stanford University, says that, in most cases, mussels harvested from contaminated waters should not be eaten.

But if the contaminant is E. coli, mussels can be thanked for the "removal and inactivation" of the faecal material, he says, calling the service a "public health benefit".

The mussels are edible because they "excrete the bacteria as faeces or mucus," he says.

Mussels living in waterways affected by eutrophication -- often marked by abundant algae -- are also fit for human consumption, researchers say.

The phenomenon is often the result of waste dumped into the waterway containing phosphates and nitrites, such as detergents, fertilisers and sewage.

The nutrients in these substances encourage the proliferation of algae, which in turn starves the water of oxygen, upsetting the ecosystem.

Mussels "recycle" these nutrients by feeding on the algae, says Eve Galimany, a researcher of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Milford Laboratory who has experimented with mussels in the Bronx River in New York.

The recycling principle is already at work in a pilot project titled Baltic Blue Growth in Sweden, Denmark and the Baltic countries which grows mussels to be fed to animals such as poultry, fish and pigs.

"Eutrophication... is the biggest problem of the Baltic Sea, the most urgent one," says project head Lena Tasse. Mussels "could be part of a solution".

Why feed them to animals if they are safe for humans? Because Baltic mussels are too small to be of interest to seafood lovers, says Tasse, adding: "Swedes like big mussels."

Meanwhile, the jury is still out on the effects of microplastics on human health.

A recent report by WWF said that humans ingest an average of five grammes of microplastics a week -- about the weight of a credit card.

A 2018 study published in the journal Environmental Pollution, based on samples from British coastlines and supermarkets, estimated that every 100 grammes (3.5 ounces) of mussels contained 70 tiny pieces of plastic.

Should we be worried? Meistertzheim thinks not.

"I eat them," she says. "A dish of mussels is not necessarily worse than organic hamburger meat wrapped in plastic."

EU parliament approves ban on single use plastics

Yahoo – AFP, March 27, 2019

In addition to the ban on a dozen kinds of disposable plastic products, such as straws,
cutlery and cotton buds, the EU will encourage member states to reduce the use of
plastic packaging and introduce stricter labelling rules (AFP Photo/Patrick Pleul)

Brussels (AFP) - European lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday for an EU-wide ban on single-use plastic products such as the straws, cutlery and cotton buds that are clogging the world's oceans.

The text had already been approved in negotiations with member states and EU officials and it will now be rapidly approved into law. The ban comes into effect from 2021.

EU Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans said Europe was not the worst source of plastic pollution, but that the pioneering measure could serve as an example to the world.

"Asian countries are very much interested in what we're doing. Latin American countries too," he said.

"Even though our share of the pollution is relatively limited, our change of the economic model has a global impact."

Types of single-use plastics to be banned by the European Union (AFP Photo/

Simon MALFATTO)

The law passed by 560 votes to 35 in the Strasbourg assembly.

Aside from the ban on a dozen kinds of disposable products for which alternatives exist, the EU will encourage member states to reduce the use of plastic packaging and introduce stricter labelling rules.

The law sets a target that 90 percent of plastic bottles will be gathered for recycling by 2029 and that they should be produced with 25 percent recycled material by 2025, 30 percent by 2030.

Rules insisting that polluters pay the costs of a clean-up are strengthened, particularly for cigarette manufacturers, who will have to support the recycling of discarded filters.

According to the EU Commission, the products prohibited under the law represent 70 percent of the waste that pours into the world's oceans, posing a threat to wildlife and fisheries.

Plastic in crosshairs at UN environment forum

Yahoo – AFP, Patrick GALEY, March 11, 2019

Plastic garbage at Lampung Bay, on the southern tip of the Indonesian island
of Sumatra (AFP Photo/PERDIANSYAH)

Nairobi (AFP) - Countries from around the world set their sights Monday on a pivotal deal to curb plastic waste, a source of long-term pollution and worsening contamination of the ocean's food chain.

Thousands of delegates, business leaders and campaigners are in Nairobi for the five-day UN Environment Assembly, the top annual forum on the planet's environmental crisis.

The UN wants individual countries to sign up to "significantly" reduce plastic production, including a phasing out of single-use plastics by 2030 -- a goal inspired by the 2015 Paris Agreement on voluntary reductions of carbon emissions.

"In the field of (plastic) pollution we don't have such agreements," Siim Kiisler, UN Environment Assembly president and Estonia's environment minister, told journalists as the gathering got underway.

"This is the first time (we have) to convince member states to make international commitments."

A landmark report due out this week is expected to ram home the warning of the threat to ecosystems from rampant plastic and chemical waste.

In the Mosafejo area of Lagos, plastic waste is being used to fill a swamp so that

the land can be developed for housing (AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi CHIBA)

The world currently produces more than 300 million tonnes of plastics annually, and there are at least five trillion plastic pieces floating in our oceans, scientists have estimated.

Microplastics have been found in the deepest sea trenches and high up Earth's tallest peaks, and plastic consumption is growing year-on-year.

"Plastic is a very good material, it's durable, flexible and light," Kiisler said. "This means we should make the best out of it for as long as possible instead of disposing of it."

The conference started on a sombre note after an Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed on Sunday, killing all 157 on board, many of whom were heading to the event.

The Nairobi meeting comes against the backdrop of series of UN reports outlining in stark terms the damage mankind is doing to the planet, much of it due to reckless consumption.

"These things are all linked: climate, the environment, waste," one delegate told AFP.

One briefing on the eve of the summit said the cost of ecosystems loss through agriculture, deforestation and pollution was a much as $20 trillion (17.7 trillion euros) since 1995.

Map showing ocean trenches up to 10 km deep where scientists found tiny 

shrimps which had ingested microplastics. (AFP Photo/Jonathan WALTER)

Acting UN environment chief Joyce Msuya said the world needed to "transform the way our economies work... break the link between growth and increased resource use, and end our throwaway culture."

The One Planet Summit on Thursday will bring together heads of state including French President Emmanuel Macron and Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta to lend political clout to the process.

Kiisler said it was a "critical time for action to protect and reverse the degradation of our planet.

"We are not going fast enough," he told reporters.

"Today we are talking about declarations and commitments but I believe in the future we need some international legislation in place."

The UN on Monday also warned that the global scale of chemical production was likely to double between now and 2030.

A study it commissioned found that worldwide chemical production capacity stands at 2.3 billion tonnes and is growing despite repeat warnings from environmental groups of the dangers hazardous materials pose to ecosystems.

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“Afraid of Love” + “What’s Wrong Today”, Laguna Hills, California, US(2), Dec 9, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

• Stagnation of the current US Politics: Compassioned (US) leaders will arise in the future
• Shortage of fresh/drinking water: Invention to make salt from salt water magnetic and remove it with water desalination process in high volumes
• Pollution on Earth: 1 - Stop killing the environment! / 2 - The rise of temperature on Earth is “temporary” and is part of the "regular" Watercycle.
• Replacement of current fossil energy source: Use of magnetics based (small/big) engines to produces electricity / free energy
• Plastic pollution in the oceans: Invention to remove the plastics gradually from the oceans

Ocean Cleanup move to the Pacific, ‘a milestone’ says Dutch inventor

Photo: The Ocean Cleanup

Ocean clean-up halted as plastic waste project hits new snag

DutchNews, January 4, 2019

Photo: The Ocean Cleanup

A Dutch project to clear plastic waste out of the Pacific ocean has had a second setback in a month – this time, one of the end parts of the boom used to catch rubbish has broken off.

This ‘structural malfunctioning of the cleanup system’ means the team is returning to port earlier than planned, the project founder Boyan Slat said on the organisation’s website. 

The 18 metre piece of the boom which has fractured off contains sensors and satellite communication systems. 

‘We are, of course, quite bummed about this as we hoped to stay out for a bit longer to collect more data on plastic-system interaction, and it introduces an additional challenge to be solved,’ Slat said. 

The boom is now being towed back to Hawaii for repairs.

System 001 has been safely opened and reconnected to the Maersk Transporter. 116 days after launching from San Francisco, the tow back to Hawaii for upgrade and repair has begun. Operations will resume as soon as possible. https://t.co/7H7V6YgvN5

— The Ocean Cleanup (@TheOceanCleanup) January 3, 2019

In early December it emerged that the plastic catcher, a 600 metre floating tube with a skirt attached to sweep up the plastic debris, was not moving fast enough to be able to hold on to the plastic. However, the problem is ‘fixable’, Slat said at the time. 

‘Although we would have liked to end the year on a more positive note, we believe these teething troubles are solvable, and the cleanup of the great Pacific garbage patch will be operational in 2019,’ he said.

Ocean Cleanup move to the Pacific, ‘a milestone’ says Dutch inventor

DutchNews, September 17, 2018

Photo: The Ocean Cleanup

Pacific Ocean trials of a young Dutch inventor’s system to clear plastic waste from the seas started this weekend, 240 nautical miles offshore from San Fransisco. 

The system, devised by 24-year-old Boyan Slat while he was a student at Delft University, consists of a 600 metre-long floating curved boom which collects and holds waste until it can be collected. 

The boom has a three metre skirt attached underneath it to catch waste floating just below the surface. 

The start of the full sea trial follows hundreds of scale-model tests, a series of prototypes, research expeditions and trials involving a shorter boom in the North Sea. 

If the two-week trial is successful, the boom will be towed towards what has become know as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, 1,200 nautical miles offshore to start the clean up. 

‘Today’s launch is an important milestone, but the real celebration will come once the first plastic returns to shore. For 60 years, mankind has been putting plastic into the oceans; from that day onwards, we’re taking it back out again,’ Slat said in a statement on Saturday. 

Crowdfunding

Slat raised the first $2m to to fund his ambitious plan via crowdfunding in 2014. Today the OceanCleanup has a staff of 70 and counts Dutch marine services group Boskalis and Denmark’s shipping giant Maersk among its backers. 

If the current trial is successful, and if the funding is available, The Ocean Cleanup aims to scale up to a fleet of approximately 60 systems focused on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch over the next two years. 

‘The system is designed to be propelled by wind and waves, allowing it to passively catch and concentrate plastic debris in front of it,’  the organisation says. ‘Moving slightly faster than the plastic, the system will act like a giant Pac-Man, skimming the surface of the ocean.’ 

The Ocean Cleanup projects that the full fleet can remove half of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch within five years’ time.

The Ocean Cleanup project sails out to sweep Pacific plastic

Yahoo – AFP, September 9, 2018

Ocean Cleanup's System 001 is towed out of the San Francisco Bay in San
Francisco, California (AFP Photo/JOSH EDELSON)

San Francisco (AFP) - A supply ship towing a long floating boom designed to corral ocean plastic has set sail from San Francisco for a test run ahead of a trip to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The ambitious project by The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch non-profit group, hopes to clean up half of the infamous garbage patch within five years when all systems are deployed.

After five years of preparation and scale model tests, "this is what it's all about, this is the culmination of all the efforts," said an excited Boyan Slat, the 24-year-old Dutch CEO and founder of The Ocean Cleanup.

Under a cloudless sky the Maersk Launcher ship sailed on Saturday past the Golden Gate Bridge out into the Pacific sea accompanied by a flotilla of sailboats and kayaks.

The supply vessel was towing a 600 meter-long boom device dubbed System 001, designed to contain floating ocean plastic so it can be scooped up and recycled. The system includes a tapered three-meter skirt to catch plastic floating just below the surface.

The ship was heading to a spot 240 nautical miles off the California coastline for a two-week trial before sailing to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating trash pile twice the size of France that swirls in the ocean halfway between California and Hawaii.

"The main mission is to show that it works, and hopefully then in a few months from now, the first plastics will arrive back into port, which means that it becomes proven technology," Slat told AFP as he witnessed the launch.

"That means that we can then start scaling up to a whole fleet of maybe 60 of these cleanup systems," he said.

Laurent Lebreton, the project's lead oceanographer, said they believe the Pacific garbage patch contains some 80,000 metric tons of plastic waste.

"Plastic has started to accumulate in the ocean since... the 1950s," Lebreton told AFP.

He said that scientists first learned about the plastic concentrating in the Pacific garbage patch in the 1970s.

Land-based plastic comes mainly from rivers, Lebreton said. "But we also find a lot of fishing ropes, fishing nets," he said.

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An impression of how the system might look. Photo: Ocean Cleanup

.

Plan to clean the oceans of plastic soup starts North Sea trials

DutchNews, June 22, 2016

Artists impression.

The Ocean Cleanup A project to clean the oceans of plastic soup will come a step nearer reality on Thursday when an experiment with a 100 metre long barrier begins 23 kilometres off the Dutch coast.

The project was launched by former Delft University student Boyan Slat in 2014 and uses long floating arms to capture the floating plastic but allows fish and plankton to pass through unharmed. 

On Thursday the barrier, resembling black plastic pillows, will be towed to the location of the coast of Scheveningen, where it will be monitored for the effects of real-life sea conditions. 

‘We want to see if we can build something which can withstand storms,’ Slat told broadcaster NOS. ‘The North Sea can be a violent place and if it remains whole here, it will stay whole anywhere.’ 

Funding

The Dutch government and construction company Boskalis have each put €500,000 into the experiment and the rest of the €1.5m cost has come from an anonymous benefactor. The experiment will take one year. 

The floating barriers are one of the most critical elements of the concept, since they are responsible for capturing and concentrating the plastic debris. The real life trials follow extensive computer modelling and scale model testing in controlled environments. 

A second test, off the coast of Tsushima Island in Japan, will take place in the second half of 2016, Slat said last year.

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Ocean clean-up project launches first sea experiment in 2016

Delft student raises $2m through crowdfunding for plastic soup plan

An impression of how the system might look. Photo: Ocean Cleanup

.

Ocean clean-up project launches first sea experiment in 2016

DutchNews, December 31, 2015

Photo: Ocean Clean-up

A project to clean the oceans of plastic soup, launched by a former Delft University student, will begin an experiment with a 100 metre long barrier off the Dutch coast in the second quarter of 2016. 

Boyan Slat said in 2014 he had raised $2m via an internet crowdfunding project to fund his ambitious plan to scoop plastic out of the Pacific Ocean. The ‘ocean cleanup’ concept is designed to capture the floating plastic but allow fish and plankton to pass through unharmed. 

The spring experiment marks the first time the barrier design has been tested in open waters. The main objective of the North Sea test, 23 kilometres off the coast near The Hague, is to monitor the effects of real-life sea conditions, with a focus on waves and currents.

Critical

The floating barriers are one of the most critical elements of the concept, since they are responsible for capturing and concentrating the plastic debris. The real life trials follow extensive computer modelling and scale model testing in controlled environments. 

A second test, off the coast of Tsushima Island in Japan, will take place in the second half of 2016.

Related Article:

Delft student raises $2m through crowdfunding for plastic soup plan

An impression of how the system might look. Photo: Ocean Cleanup

Delft student raises $2m through crowdfunding for plastic soup plan

DutchNews.nl, Thursday 11 September 2014

An impression of how the system might look. Photo: Ocean Cleanup

A former Delft University student says he has raised $2m via an internet crowdfunding project to fund his ambitious plan to scoop plastic out of the Pacific Ocean.

Boyan Slat, 20, wants to develop a massive floating boom to catch the plastic soup and scoop it into ships. His project first hit the headlines earlier this year.

Slat plans to use the $2m to start developing his Ocean Cleanup system and run trials using a boom of between five and 10 kilometres long. Eventually he hopes to develop a 100 kilometre catchment system.

Donations

With two days to go, over 37,500 people have donated funding to the project over the past two months.

Slat thinks his dream will eventually cost over €300m to produce and says he expects to raise that money once the technology has been proven. 'If you consider the plastic in the oceans causes damage worth some $13bn a year, I think the money will be forthcoming,' he told news agency ANP.

In the meantime, the project is taking up so much time that Slat has abandoned his aeronautical engineering degree. 'I can't think of anything better than developing a solution to a global problem and realising it with the support of tens of thousands of people,' he said.

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