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Mega clean-up drive in pacific ocean! Initiative to clear 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic relaunched

The devices broke apart under constant waves and wind last time and it wasn’t retaining the plastic it caught.

Floating device which is designed to catch plastic waste
Floating device which is designed to catch plastic waste

Attempt to clean-up a huge island of trash swirling in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii is being made for the second time, through a floating device which is designed to catch plastic waste, has been redeployed in the area. According to a report by Associated Press (AP), the device which is equipped with solar-powered lights, cameras, sensors, and satellite antennas will help in revealing it’s real-time position making it easier for support vessels to transport the collected waste to drylands every few months.

Founder of the Ocean Cleanup project, Boyan Slat tweeted that a 2,000 foot (600-meter) long floating boom broke apart last year and was sent back to Greater Pacific Garbage Patch this week after four months of repair. In the last attempt, the U-shaped barrier was towed by a ship from San Francisco to greater Pacific Garbage Patch in September to trap the plastic. The boom broke apart under constant waves and wind last time and it wasn’t retaining the plastic it caught.

Slat adding to his tweets said, that he is hoping for no more surprises in store for them from nature and that this campaign is going to teach them a lot of lessons.

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The device acts like a coastline as it has a tapered 10 foot deep ( 3-meter deep ) screen and according to an estimate will help in trapping around 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic which are swirling in the patch and will help the marine life to flourish safely in the Pacific.

During the first run, the device did not have any environmental impact and worked efficiently said the marine biologists on board the support vessel.

Slat plans to deploy 60 more devices in the coming days to filter out the plastic debris from the ocean and keep marine life away from its impact.

Notably, Plastic has been one of the major reasons for the death of many marine creatures and possesses a threat to many others.

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First published on: 24-06-2019 at 13:26 IST
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