4 Innovative plans to reduce plastic pollution in oceans

posted Nov. 16th on ecofriend.com by Garima Goel

Humans have been discarding waste into the water bodies for ages. Over the years, the plastic pollution in our oceans has become one of the major environmental problems. The marine debris is not only creating the unsightly beach litter, but it also poses a serious threat to the marine life and the coastal habitation. The major problem is due to the range of plastics that does not biodegrade. Let’s take a look at some of the innovative plans that could help reduce plastic pollution in oceans.

1. Recycled island

Recycled islandThis beautiful island is a research project proposed by Dutch architect Ramon Knoester

 

This beautiful island is a research project proposed by Dutch architect Ramon Knoester. The ‘recycled island’, as it is aptly called, is situated between Hawaii and San Francisco in the Pacific Ocean. The project is aimed to create a habitable area using the oceanic debris that includes the plastic waste, cleaning the oceans vividly. Moreover, by doing this the waste plastic will be converted from rubbish to a constructing material. The Hawaii sized recycled island won’t be depending on other countries for resources needed to survive, but will have its own food and energy resources, generating power from the sun and wind. The floating island is self sufficient, non polluting and in harmony with environment and will therefore not disturb the global ecology. The sustainable island will be developed with all sorts of modern lifestyle with mingled usage of environments. The idea is purely green and ambitious, but the obstacles like time span and the cost for giving the proposal an actual shape, cannot be ruled out.

2. Eco mobile robot

Eco mobile robotThe Eco mobile robot designed by Ejiuson Ueda

 

The Eco mobile robot, designed by Ejiuson Ueda, is an advanced system created to clear up the garbage from all the oceans of the world. These floating platforms aim to acquire an international group action to be performed in case of aquaculture and also to minimize the temperature increase of the oceans, which further renders to an increase in the water level. These floating buoys might look similar to oil rigs but work in quite a dissimilar way. The eco mobile robots consist of a sensor to canvas the quality of the water and the powerful pumps that suck up the plastic dump and toxins from within the deep regions below water. Clean and non toxic saline water is released back to the ocean. The dangerous waste materials are collected in a special container and dumped in a safe and suitable place. The Eco Mobile Robot is connected to the satellites all around the world and the site that needs to be treated immediately is monitored. The innovative system will help the marine life to get a cleaner environment for survival, making the oceans non toxic.

3. Plastic harvesting ship

Plastic harvesting ship 

Plastic waste contamination is one of the major issues today. Although the waste systems clear up the apparent plastic from the ocean surface, the nurdles, often called as mermaid tears, can be found on almost every shoreline. These nurdles that resemble fish eggs are consumed by other marine creatures, which are killed due to plastic ingestion. Kieran Jones, Azusa Murakami, Alexander Groves, a graduate team of Royal College of Art, UK has come up with ‘the Sea chair project’ that turns out to resolve the marine contamination trouble. These designers propose to convert an old fishing trawler into a fully functioning chair making factory where the plastic nurdles are collected and are then separated by their size. The plastic nurdles that are found floating every square mile of an ocean, is either leaked from factory storage or spilled during transit. These small granules of virgin materials will be collected and used to make plastic sea chairs.

4. Ocean´s plastic waste collecting ships

Ocean´s plastic waste collecting ships

 

The purpose of creating these unmanned ships is to collect the plastic litter in the North Pacific Ocean. These automated ships are powered by solar and wind energy, along with the bio fuels. The ship is navigated using GPS technology. Two sets of rotating, lightweight but firm paddle wheels are designed to collect the plastic waste. While the front paddles collect the large waste, the rear one collects the smaller granules. The debris collected by the maintenance ships can be recycled on the mainland.