
The Dutch boy mopping up a sea of plastic - choult
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29631332
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tjradcliffe
It's a tad depressing that some scientists are telling him he's doing it
wrong, and should instead be doing something else, like working to prevent
plastics from entering the oceans in the first place. That is a vastly harder
problem because plastics enter the oceans through many paths, from falling off
container ships to washing down rivers to being carried out by the winds or
falling off pleasure craft (I myself used to have several spare bumpers for my
boat, donated by what I like to think of as "The Society for Mariners Who
Aren't Very Good at Tying Knots").

We don't have particularly good data on which paths account for how much:
[http://www.sea.edu/plastics/frequently_asked_questions](http://www.sea.edu/plastics/frequently_asked_questions)

Easy solutions, like anti-dumping treaties, are already in place. A relatively
cheap means of removing plastic may not be a bad next step.

Citizens willing to put time, effort and money into investigating practical
engineering solutions to these problems should be encouraged, not dismissed.
Particularly by people who are not themselves working on the alternative
solutions they claim would be superior.

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aaron695
> It's a tad depressing that some scientists are telling him he's doing it
> wrong

They should lie to him because he's just a child?

~~~
indlebe
They should be more hesitant to give him advice that may discourage him from
trying. There's not enough data to warrant it, it's not a simple math problem
that he's calculating wrong.

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KJasper
The most interesting part of this story is that scientist can't seem to find
this plastic. It's missing:
[http://news.sciencemag.org/environment/2014/06/ninety-
nine-p...](http://news.sciencemag.org/environment/2014/06/ninety-nine-percent-
oceans-plastic-missing)

~~~
basher
Plastic eating bacteria? [http://www.scientificamerican.com/slideshow/gulf-
oil-eating-...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/slideshow/gulf-oil-eating-
microbes-slide-show/)

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kartikkumar
Saw his TedX talk in Delft; inspirational! Although there are plenty of
challenges ahead, he proved that strong will gets you far. His crowd-funding
campaign was a blitz from what I remember.

The technology needs a lot more investment than he raised for large-scale
deployment, but I think he shook people awake at the very least.

I think he also made a wise choice of staying in The Netherlands. Water
management is definitely a forte, especially in Delft. The marine technology
department is attached to mechanical engineering.

Will be interesting to see what the real tipping point will be for this
concept to experience another 10x jump.

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flyn031
Found a new interview with him from September 2014 here, just raised 2 million
via crowd funding, if it works it would be astonishing...big ask but
[http://www.globalinnovationmagazine.com/issues/oct2014/#26-2...](http://www.globalinnovationmagazine.com/issues/oct2014/#26-27)

