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Viral ‘plastic-eating’ boat removes 3 tons of garbage per hour: ‘This is actually so cool’
(lighthouse-eco.co.za)
this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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Environment
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It is very cool. I am not sure how they are avoiding scooping out marine life while gathering the garbage. It looks like it can avoid scooping up something large, like a dolphin, but what about smaller organisms like jellyfish?
https://www.theseacleaners.org/faqs/
The boat is playing infrasound noise to scare animals away. The catch is sorted manually, where they remove animals and other organic matter.
I wouldn't worry about jellyfish particularly. There's way too many of them.
I guess the slow moving conveyer belt give animals time to get out of the way before getting captured. The Sea Cleaners FAQ also says the following.
Will this boat be a nuisance for the marine fauna and flora?
Every effort is made to minimize the impact on marine fauna and flora. In particular, the boat will be equipped with an infrasound system to keep marine animals away from the boat by scattering fish and marine mammals when approaching the boat.
Waste sorting will be done manually: the few living organisms and the organic waste that will get caught in the collection mats will be immediately put back into the water, without damage.
Except in special cases, anchoring will not be necessary, so the impact on the sea grass beds and marine flora will be minimized, and the calls will be scheduled in ports equipped with infrastructures to handle the cargoes of waste brought back by the vessel.
Relevant: https://youtu.be/O7OzRzs_u-8?si=2I77JvyRmVF2Oy3B
It's clear that prevention is the most crucial step, starting with catching it at deltas / rivers before it reaches the ocean.
And regulating polluters ofc.
apparently it's not super great: https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/22949475/ocean-plastic-pollution-cleanup
“It’s like mopping up the spill when the spigot is still on. We can’t clean up our way out of plastic pollution.”
We need to fix the underlying problems before cleanup even makes sense to attempt. The biggest one being is single use plastics and the inability to recycle, practically speaking most plastic can't be recycled. But since corporations only care for profit and producing clamshell containers is efficient from their PoV, there isn't a way to change without government intervention.
Which, lol, we all know isn't happening.
It seems like finding a way to remove power from corporations would immediately fix the vast majority of our problems.
now if only we could do something with that plastic after we fish it out...
My understanding is they're going to recycle it into useful products but I don't believe they've perfected the process yet.
It's kind of like a big version of Mr Trashwheel