SCRAMS #2: Dutch Teenager Plans to Save Oceans
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2415889/Boyan-Slat-19-claims-invention-clean-worlds-oceans-just-years.html
My second SCRAMS article is about a 19 year-old's discovery of a new way to clean pollutants such as plastic and other garbage from the world's oceans. His name is Boyan Slat, who now works as an engineering student, says that is design includes a series of floating booms and processing platforms designed to 'suck' in floating plastic trash. His 'ocean cleanup' concept: "Is designed to capture the floating plastic but allow life like plankton to pass through unharmed, while saving the waste materials to be recycled. The design is self-sufficient and saves energy by being tethered to the sea bed" (pictured above, quoted: Boyan Slat). Just earlier this year, Mr. Slat gave a TED talk explaining his prototype (first picture). He plans to start his tests in the North Sea, where many tons of trash have been accumulating over the years. He says that the reason he started this project was because he believes humans must end their reliance on disposable plastic items and manage waste responsibly, his innovation could make a big difference to the cleanliness of oceans in the shorter-term.
I chose this article because it was relevant to the current crisis in the world's oceans today. It also is interesting to me because I kept on hearing reports of massive "garbage islands" off the Gulf Coast of Texas and even Japan. These "gyres" of swirling trash exist in all of the world's oceans, so I think that this energy-efficient way of drastically reducing the amount of trash in the oceans within 10 years is a major breakthrough. It also uses a combination of Solar and wave generated power to move through the water.
So... What now?!?
A major obstacle for this project was tying to obtain the necessary funds to start the full-scale testing. Boyan has recently set up a foundation for this project. After that, according to Mr. Slat, the project will be able to fund itself! By recycling the materials that it cleans up, he estimates that the machine could reach up to 500 million dollars in the next ten years! He hopes that this system will be up and running in the next 2 years.
I chose this article because it was relevant to the current crisis in the world's oceans today. It also is interesting to me because I kept on hearing reports of massive "garbage islands" off the Gulf Coast of Texas and even Japan. These "gyres" of swirling trash exist in all of the world's oceans, so I think that this energy-efficient way of drastically reducing the amount of trash in the oceans within 10 years is a major breakthrough. It also uses a combination of Solar and wave generated power to move through the water.
So... What now?!?
A major obstacle for this project was tying to obtain the necessary funds to start the full-scale testing. Boyan has recently set up a foundation for this project. After that, according to Mr. Slat, the project will be able to fund itself! By recycling the materials that it cleans up, he estimates that the machine could reach up to 500 million dollars in the next ten years! He hopes that this system will be up and running in the next 2 years.