
A free-standing, waste-trapping floating dam could revolutionize ocean clean-up - rfreytag
http://qz.com/584637/a-free-standing-waste-trapping-floating-dam-could-revolutionize-ocean-clean-up/
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punteney
A similar item is Baltimore's "Mr Trash Wheel" [1] which in one year has kept
over 350 tons of trash from going into the harbor. It even has it's own
twitter account [2].

Something like the trash wheel is most effective at choke points where a bunch
of trash is getting funneled into a fairly narrow space versus the open ocean,
but it's amazing how much trash it has kept out of the harbor and thereby the
ocean.

1\. [http://baltimorewaterfront.com/healthy-harbor/water-
wheel/](http://baltimorewaterfront.com/healthy-harbor/water-wheel/)

2\. [https://twitter.com/MrTrashWheel](https://twitter.com/MrTrashWheel)

~~~
ch4s3
The trash wheel is great, so much garbage used to clog the harbor after it
rained, now there's barely any.

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monk_e_boy
The beach near us over the last 20 years or so has gone from having a bit of
plastic and wood washed up, to having more plastic than seaweed. It's amazing
how much of it is rope and net. There is so much broken tiny bits of rope that
it almost looks like a light dusting of snow some days. It's crazy.

Last week there were a whole bunch of milk bottles washed up and the crows
were pecking holes in them and drinking the milk.

We also get plastic pallets washing up, they are about 1.5m sq.

But so many nets and rope.

~~~
roflchoppa
Yeah I've seen something similar on beaches around Half Moon Bay, and in the
Don Edwards National Reserve. I started keeping plastic bags and gloves in my
car, that way I can pick some of it out before i head back to my car.

~~~
OliverJones
Yup, same deal here on the shore of the Gulf of Maine. Lots of plastic trash,
both from the fishing industry and from the land. Plastic boxes, bottles,
bags, beach whistles (tampon applicators), as well as hunks of rope and net.

I have trashbags in my trunk. I also have a trash grabber; it lets me get more
stuff for a given investment of time.

I like this floating dam idea. Hope it works. Hope the rubbish they scavenge
can be dealt with safely.

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amelius
This only collects the visible pollution. I don't have any numbers, but I can
imagine that the invisible pollution is much worse. This is a noble project,
but I hope it will not end up just washing away our guilt.

~~~
monk_e_boy
Currently we are doing nothing to clean the oceans. Floating plastic is very
very bad, it get churned up against rocks and cliffs to become tiny bits that
end up in the food chain.

Go to any beach and look along the shoreline to see tonnes of broken plastic.

There was a TV programme they showed last month where a scientist said that
they had not found a single fish that didn't have plastic in its gut. They had
examined thousands.

~~~
pizza234
According to what I've gathered from previous HN discussions on the same
subject, oceans are self-cleaning - garbage will slowly wash ashore, so if
theoretically nobody would throw garbage in the seas anymore, the oceans would
be clean in some years [1].

This raises the doubt that instead of focusing on directly cleaning the
waters, effort should be put into not polluting the seas in first place
(cleaning shores would be consequential). But focusing on the cause rather
than the symptoms is not exactly a forte of human behavior.

[1] [http://inhabitat.com/the-fallacy-of-cleaning-the-gyres-of-
pl...](http://inhabitat.com/the-fallacy-of-cleaning-the-gyres-of-plastic-with-
a-floating-ocean-cleanup-array/)

~~~
andrewflnr
I see no reason not to attack the problem from both ends at once.

~~~
riffraff
that would make sense given unlimited/non-competing resources, but if the
resources (money, people, awareness, legislative effort) available to solve
the problem are limited, it is wasteful to use them for something which
doesn't work rather than something that would.

(I do not know if the specific thing works or not, just pointing out that "why
not both" is not always a good approach)

~~~
amelius
Especially if a beach covered in plastic is the best possible advertisement
for a solid, well-informed approach to helping the environment :)

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jjp
Not clear from the article or linked press release how wildlife isn't caught
up in the cleanup. Would also be interesting to know how small an item it will
clean.

~~~
huuu
[http://www.theoceancleanup.com/technology.html](http://www.theoceancleanup.com/technology.html)
gives more information.

~~~
anotheryou
but there is floating wildlife too, no?

like this one:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_man_o%27_war](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_man_o%27_war)

------
flurdy
On a smaller scale this Indigogo campaign, the SeaBin project, is trying to do
something similar:

[https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cleaning-the-oceans-
one-m...](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cleaning-the-oceans-one-marina-
at-a-time)

[http://www.seabinproject.com/](http://www.seabinproject.com/)

~~~
monk_e_boy
The seabin is just a pump and filter. Sure, it's great that some one is
cleaning the ocean, but it's not exactly a revolutionary idea.

------
darkseas
In the past, I have seen similar schemes questioned on grounds of:

\- tethering, they likely need to be anchored in shallow water (<100m) to
reduce expensive anchoring gear and potential entanglement,

\- high wave states, what will happens to the booms and collected plastic
during storms? Particularly in shallow waters where waves rear up.

I imagine testing in the Pacific would address the first, and in the North Sea
for the second. But testing in Dutch lakes may not help assess either. I don't
question the need for such a solution tho, hopes it works.

~~~
darkseas
It seems the ocean cleanup plan been afloat for awhile.

[http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2013/12/16/391137...](http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2013/12/16/3911379.htm)

[http://inhabitat.com/19-year-old-student-develops-ocean-
clea...](http://inhabitat.com/19-year-old-student-develops-ocean-cleanup-
array-that-could-remove-7250000-tons-of-plastic-from-the-worlds-
oceans/plastic-boon-system/)

