Another blow for plastic collection in the Pacific Ocean

The pioneers at Ocean Cleanup were really disappointed when they had to abort their first plastic collection mission on December 29. last year. The 600 meter cleaning system did not work as they planned when an 18 meter long part broke. An additional blow was that the system collected plastic far less efficient than they had calculated.

Ocean Cleanup’s goal is to use the ocean currents for plastic collection from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and bring it on land. The system was towed out from San Francisco September 8 last year all the way to the out-of-sight Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Northern Pacific Ocean.

Why did the plastic collection go wrong?

The easy part of the job is to fix the construction failure. What the team struggles with and a more serious problem is why the system didn’t work. Despite all the tests and modelling on beforehand, it simply didn’t manage to keep the plastics within the system. It was brought through it by wind and currents.

The Ocean Cleanup team analyzed what went went wrong and came up with some conclusions. First, the device may be too slow in responding to how fast the plastics move. Further, the system may affect the dynamics between the water surface and the air. It is hard to measure the exact wind- and wave patterns and force at the surface and between each wave, even for hard core oceanographers.

Is it really a good idea?

The project has been criticized by several experts. The critics say it may harm the environment. Some question the cost-benefit analysis. Others point out that it may divert the attention from the realy problem: The world produces too much plastics.

I am not so sure about the latter. The EU recently decided a ban on single use plastic from 2021 and other countries are doing the same.

Big companies are gearing up to manage their plastics use and replace it with alternative materials.

In addition, the plastic already in the ocean are doing and will continue to do great harm. It is a point in itself to collect this. When the Ocean Cleanup went out to sea for the first assessments they found plastic from the 1950s.

From 1995 they found Gameboy cover; from 1989 a safety helmet from Japan; a soda case from 1977 and from the 50’s and 60’s small plastic bits. These bits (filling the size of a dinner plate) were found in the turtle’s stomach in Uruguay in 2016.

There are two problems: The big plastic items floating around entangle birds and fish. When it is broken down to micro plastic sea animals consume it. Based on Ocean Cleanup’s data material only 3 per cent of all plastic is micro plastic. This means that the remaining 97 per cent will be broken down if it is not collected.

The world’s plastic production

The global plastics production is expected to quadruple by 2050. In fact, it will require 20 per cent of the worlds oil production if this trend continues. Plastic production is 20 times higher today than it was in 1964. In 2016 the global production was 335 million tons of plastic which means 1,340 tons in 2050. Eight million tons, probably a lot more, enter the oceans every year.

The post-plastic society

The solutions for the post-plastic society is still years in the future, according to the authors of «The future of plastics recycling» published in Science in november last year. They state that the effects of recycling will be limited even with economic and environmental incentives. Sorting plastics before it is recycled is costly and time consuming. It is energy intensive and the end product has low quality. Today’s technology does not effectively manage all the different types of plastics. New research points to better use of chemical recycling methods using less energy and that plastics of different types can be mixed to avoid sorting.»

To what extent the industry itself actually is pushing the agenda is also a question. Plastics should be phased out altogether, according to some critics. Recycling is just a way for the oil industry to continue its business.