It is no surprise that the world has been struggling for quite some time now, which is why almost every nation in the world have signed the Paris Climate Change Deal in 2016 with the promise to try and do things that wouldn’t worsen global warming. Then again, that is not the only thing ruining the world even more.
Plastic is basically one of those things that must be gone, but we all know it is impossible. According to the scientists from the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch actually has the largest accumulation of plastic in the ocean. Every single year, more than 2 million tonnes of plastic gets on it and most of them are not even that dense so technically, they would just float around.
It turns out that there are actually way more plastic debris than expected, but there might be hope with the very first plastic cleaner made.
Great Pacific; Unlimited Garbage
According to the recent findings from the Scientific Reports, there are 79,000 tons of plastic (and counting) in the Pacific Ocean and it is considered to be twice the size of France. This technically means that there are now trillions of plastics in the ocean. These findings are said to be 16 times larger than expected. For the past two years, they have been surveying the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with by doing some boat and air survey.
According to one of the oceanographers from Ocean Cleanup, Laurent Lebreton, who is also the lead author of the study, it is actually pretty depressing to see how much garbage there is in the Pacific Ocean. There are tons of discarded fishing nets, as well as plastic bottles, ropes, plates, and more. He also mentioned how he had been doing this research for quite a while now and he still wonders how some of the things he sees ends up being in the ocean.
The only way to get rid of plastic basically has it used as plastic again, that why there will no longer be the need to produce more plastics. Things are definitely getting out of hand, so people must do something now, or this world will no longer be a place for people to live in. Plastics are known to be extremely durable to the fact that it is not something that people can easily get rid of.
These garbages doesn’t just pollute the sea, they are also the reason why marine creatures are getting into the list of endangered species. Some fishes already eat particles of plastic that ends up on their stomach, and so when mankind eats fish, they don’t know that they are already consuming plastic. According to experts, before the year 2050, there will be more plastics in the sea than fishes and other marine animals.
First Plastic Cleaner
A group of scientists actually discovered a mutant enzyme by accident. The said enzyme said to have naturally evolved into something that eats and breaks down plastic bottles. It could even break down polyethylene terephthalate, which is the kind of plastic that is used for bottles. However, aside from this accidental discovery, the Ocean Cleanup will soon be using their very first device that would have the ability to clean tones of plastic from the ocean waters.
The company said that they will actually use massive floating nets that are all held in place with the help of giant tube, that are sucking waste from the waters. The said waste that will be collected will be transferred from the tube into the ships of the company for recycling.
Technically, it is somewhat a manual way to do it, but anything like it is considered to be a huge help especially when not a lot of people are doing anything to clean up the waters anyways. Ocean Cleanup said that fishes that will be accidentally caught will have an escape route underneath. More and more people and companies are trying to find the best solution to get rid of all the plastic on the ocean waters, although change may not be seen really soon, there is a change nonetheless. It is better than doing nothing but the worst.