New weapon in fight against ocean pollution

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                                                                             The massive floater is intended to scoop up plastic waste but critics worry that it might scoop up some of the marine life too.

                                                                                                         

A controversial giant plastic collector will launch into the Pacific Ocean today in an attempt to tackle one of the greatest blights on the planet.

The high-profile launch of The Ocean Cleanup, the brainchild of a 24-year-old Dutch inventor, is the biggest test yet of its boast that it can help solve the problem of the great Pacific 'garbage patch'.

Between California and Hawaii, the patch, also known as a gyre, is three times the size of France and contains as many as two trillion pieces of plastic waste. It is believed to be the largest of five huge gyres in the world's oceans.

The Ocean Cleanup system comprises a 600-metre long boom, called a floater, with a skirt attached. Pulled into a horseshoe shape, it is hoped it will act as an artificial coastline and scoop up the plastic waste.

Its creators say it could remove half of the waste in the garbage patch within five years. Using traditional methods, it is said, would take thousands of years.

 

But the project and its creator Boyan Slat have been criticised for targeting just the tiny percentage of plastic waste that sits near the surface of the ocean. There are also concerns marine life could become caught up in the system.

And many in the ocean science community says it sends the wrong message about solving the problem of plastic waste.

Eben Schwartz, who runs the marine debris programme for the California Coastal Commission, said it would be "fantastic" if the project succeeded.

But he added: "The danger from this project is that it can become a distraction to the important work we need to do on land to stop the trash from entering the ocean in the first place.

"Eighty percent of the plastic and trash that enters the world's oceans starts on land and if we can prevent it or better yet reduce it first we have a much better chance of reducing the harm that this stuff does when it's out in the ocean."

But at The Ocean Cleanup assembly yard on the San Francisco Bay, chief executive Lonneke Holiernoek defended the project.

She said the team had been willing to listen and share information.

"We've developed the system with minimum negative impacts in mind.

"We do this because we want to improve the environment.

"We love marine life and we want to save it from the harmful plastic that's out there.

"All of the design we've done is with that in mind."

 

After its launch the system will pass under the Golden Gate Bridge and head for trials some 250 miles out into the Pacific. If all goes to plan, it will then travel the 1,000 miles to the garbage patch.

Results are expected by the end of the year and the ocean science community will be watching closely.