Daniel Boffey: Ocean cleanup device successfully collects plastic for first time
A huge floating device
designed by Dutch scientists to clean up an island of rubbish in the Pacific
ocean that is three times the size of France has successfully picked up plastic
from the high-seas for the first time. Boyan Slat, the
creator of the Ocean Cleanup project, announced on Twitter that the 600-metre
(2,000ft) long floating boom had captured and retained debris from what is
known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Alongside a picture of
the collected rubbish, which includes a car wheel, Slat tweeted: “Our ocean
cleanup system is now finally catching plastic, from one-ton ghost nets to tiny
microplastics! Also, anyone missing a wheel?” About 600,000 to
800,000 metric tons of fishing gear are abandoned or lost at sea each year.
Another 8m metric tons of plastic waste flows in from beaches....
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/03/ocean-cleanup-device-successfully-collects-plastic-for-first-time