A non-profit organisation has removed 100,000 kg of plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. The non-profit group, Ocean Cleanup, reached the impressive milestone earlier this week. In a release, they said that they have cleaned nearly 1/1000 of the GPGP, which is more than the combined weight of two Boeing 737-800s. Also known as the Pacific trash vortex, GPGP is an area between Hawaii and California, where plastic and other human-made litter and debris accumulate.
The clean-up of the ocean was carried out by System 002 deployed by the group in August last year. "It has now collected 101,353 kg of plastic over 45 extractions, sweeping an area of ocean of over 3,000 square kilometres - comparable to the size of Luxembourg or Rhode Island," Ocean Cleanup said in the release.
"Added to the 7,173 kg of plastic captured by our previous prototype systems, The Ocean Cleanup has now collected 108,526 kg of plastic from the GPGP," it further said.
The Ocean Cleanup's System 002 consists of a floating barrier with a skirt that hangs below it, under the water. It works by dragging a tensioned, artificial coastline through areas of the ocean where plastic has accumulated. Two vessels pull the system on each end, resulting in a U-shaped flexible barrier that collects the floating plastics into a retention zone.
According to National Geographic, the amount of debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch accumulates because much of it is not biodegradable. It further said that many plastic pieces do not wear down but simply break into tinier and tinier pieces. These are called microplastics.
The microplastics of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can simply make the water look like a cloudy soup, said the outlet, adding that this soup is intermixed with larger items, such as fishing gear and shoes.
