The Ocean Cleanup Project

To meet our ambitious goals of deploying the first ocean cleanup system this summer, we are reminded of one of our basic design principles here at The Ocean Cleanup: doing is the fastest way of learning.

In less than five weeks, we progressed from signing the lease for an empty assembly yard in Alameda, California to a fully active construction site populated with contractors, engineers, machinery and the many components of the cleanup system finally coming together. All of this is in preparation for our next milestone: the tow test before we launch our cleanup system into the Pacific.

SYSTEM 001 ASSEMBLY: 120-METER TOW TEST UNIT COMPLETED.

We have successfully initiated our 120-meter tow test unit towards its designated test pattern approximately 50 nautical miles outside of San Francisco’s Golden Gate. This is an important test before we deploy our complete system into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch later this summer.

In our last update, we detailed the engineering that has been completed since we set up our assembly yard in California. The 120-meter unit they completed for this test is the first section of the whole 600-meter System 001. The purpose of the tow test is to see how the system behaves in the water (its hydrodynamics) as well as at the screen’s performance under tow and during various maneuvers at sea.

SYSTEM 001 TOW TEST EXPLAINED.

Home page: TheOceanCleanUp.com

Hi ATS!

I have mentioned this effort in several different threads. This deserves to be followed as its own effort.

Out in our oceans are places called "gyres" where currents slow down and are circular in the paths they choose. Within at least 5 gyres around the world garbage, lots of plastics, have accumulated. I posted a thread here about them and the amazing large issue it would take to clean it all up.

Several years ago, a teenager had the idea of creating autonomous booms that scoop out the plastic and garbage floating around in the Pacific Ocean. He won an award for his idea and he became a celebrity of sorts. But something else happened, he actually followed through with his idea! The ships actually place the booms into the gyre's current. There are radio trackers, satellites, ships for offloading the booms, etc (see the website for all the exact details).

After years of planning, growing up, and sponsorships, they finally got down to work last year with the goal of deployment of their full-sized test model, a 600 meter boom. Earlier this year, they signed a lease on an assembly shop in San Francisco. As the update quoted above states, in little over a month later they had the place outfitted and manufacturing began!

On May 19, they did a tow test of a 120 meter section out in the Pacific off the coast of SF. They did it twice. Once with the section towed without the screen deployed. Then again with the screen out. That section will be part of the 600 meter system. The whole System 001 be taken out further to sea for a two month run.

Barring any issues encountered, they will haul the 600 meter System 001 to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and deploy it this summer as they have planned.

Just when I feel like giving up on mankind an action like this makes feel all warm and fuzzy again!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

What will happen to all the plastic from the garbage patch. Landfill, recycled, rendered for fuel or building material?

a reply to: olaru12

In parallel to developing technology to extract plastic from the ocean, we also investigate how we can reuse the material once it is back on shore. Initial work on ocean plastic recycling shows our material can be turned into high quality products. Imagine your next phone, chair, car bumper or sunglasses could be made from plastic retrieved from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. By selling our branded material for reuse, we aim to eventually make the cleanup self-sustainable.

(Source: Homepage)

They plan on recycling some of it and sell as a partial funding method for their effort.

Notice how they called it "System 001"?? They plan on having multiple systems.

All they have to do is show a profit somehow then it will be all the rage to go trash fishin.

system 123 will be a for profit robotic replicating system that creates consumer goods from a platform in the middle of the ocean.

Great to see some positive news.

Why can't something like this be a multi-national effort? Instead of trying to invade this country or that, or enacting carbon taxes, countries could apply their resources to cleaning this planet up a little. I wouldn't mind my tax dollars going to something like this.

a reply to: howtonhawky

Packaging companies typically prefer freshly made 'virgin' plastics that are created from chemical starting materials that are usually derived from oil.

The PET-digesting enzymes offer a way to truly recycle plastic. They could be added to vats of waste, breaking all the bottles or other plastic items down into into easy-to-handle chemicals. These could then be used to make fresh plastics, producing a true recycling system.

sciencealert.com - Scientists Just Discovered Plastic-Eating Bacteria That Can Break Down PET.

That was back in March. Sometime in the future, System 666, will be eating all plastics and returning them back to constituent parts.

Before turning on its maker! Bwwwwwaaaaaahhhhhhhhhaaaaaaahhhhhhhaaaaaaaaa!!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Will it be autonomous or will it have to be towed to work?

Good idea but it needs to be self sufficient and not require to be towed expect to the location and back.

a reply to: VictorVonDoom

Or "world plastic tax"? Or 1% have to auto donate to even look at their wealth. Or since everybody has a shopping card, autodeduct a fraction of a cent for each shopping trip. Hundreds of millions right there!

This all happened so fast. They leased office space last fall in San Francisco. I saw they had a manufacturing site. But here I am finding out weeks after the fact that they already did the tow test on the smaller section.

This is news that needs to be repeated. I think people with any sort of feelings would say something similar about their tax dollars at work!

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: VictorVonDoom

Or "world plastic tax"? Or 1% have to auto donate to even look at their wealth. Or since everybody has a shopping card, autodeduct a fraction of a cent for each shopping trip. Hundreds of millions right there!

This all happened so fast. They leased office space last fall in San Francisco. I saw they had a manufacturing site. But here I am finding out weeks after the fact that they already did the tow test on the smaller section.

This is news that needs to be repeated. I think people with any sort of feelings would say something similar about their tax dollars at work!

Should that cost be passed onto the customers or the companies who choose plastics as a way to make more money?

I was happy with glass bottles, weren’t you?

a reply to: GuidedKill


They are autonomous. They also do not use fuel or have an engine or anything. It is a passive system.

They do have be deployed by ship but after that they are on their own. They use the ocean current to both move around and to push plastic and garbage into the u-shaped screens. They deploy deep water anchors to slow them down so the current moves a bit faster which forces the plastic against the screen. Any small animals can go over the top. They sense when they are full and send out a message saying so. A ship is deployed to haul in the boom and empty them. Then back into the water!

It is a pretty cool system. I'll go look for the TEDx talk the inventor gave (like he was 18 or something!).

Cool and chock full of hope... yay!

I have a sneaking suspicion that if AI is used on the autonomous barges, they would eventually start collecting the plastic, remolding it back into water bottles and then dropping them back into the ocean, being the logical destination for the recycled plastic, anyway.

If only we had the tech to make 'bottles' of water with surface tension or room temp ice crystals ... or, uh... glass?

Maybe step 2 will be thresher machines that harvest humans who use plastic water bottles in the first place.

a reply to: GuidedKill

I was only half-serious about another consumer tax (we get taxed enough as is).

I do my fare share of recycling. I bring my growlers back to the brewery every Tuesday! Except for two stainless steel they are all glass!

The real issue is single use items in plastic. In a throw away society they end up on the streets then down the gutter and out to sea. Then they enter the gyre mosh pit and grind each other down to micro plastics. As that ATS thread said, there are more plastics by weight in the ocean than plankton.

Here is the TEDx talk where the idea first went viral.


(homepage, milestones, how it all began)

originally posted by: VictorVonDoom
Great to see some positive news.

Why can't something like this be a multi-national effort? Instead of trying to invade this country or that, or enacting carbon taxes, countries could apply their resources to cleaning this planet up a little. I wouldn't mind my tax dollars going to something like this.

Over 80% of this plastic waste comes from 5 Asian countries. They should be the ones cleaning it up.

originally posted by: Metallicus

originally posted by: VictorVonDoom
Great to see some positive news.

Why can't something like this be a multi-national effort? Instead of trying to invade this country or that, or enacting carbon taxes, countries could apply their resources to cleaning this planet up a little. I wouldn't mind my tax dollars going to something like this.

Over 80% of this plastic waste comes from 5 Asian countries. They should be the ones cleaning it up.

Although I agree with you in theory let me ask you this.

If your neighbors dog craps on your lawn everyday we would agree your neighbor should clean it up.

What if your neighbor refuses and the authorities refuse to help you? Are you going to clean up the crap or ignore it until you're buried in it?

originally posted by: Baddogma
Cool and chock full of hope... yay!

I have a sneaking suspicion that if AI is used on the autonomous barges, they would eventually start collecting the plastic, remolding it back into water bottles and then dropping them back into the ocean, being the logical destination for the recycled plastic, anyway.

If only we had the tech to make 'bottles' of water with surface tension or room temp ice crystals ... or, uh... glass?

Maybe step 2 will be thresher machines that harvest humans who use plastic water bottles in the first place.

Given the problems with knife crime, and the hazards of broken glass bottles left on the sand beaches and thrown into outdoor swimming pools, glass bottles are a very bad idea.

originally posted by: Isurrender73

originally posted by: Metallicus

originally posted by: VictorVonDoom
Great to see some positive news.

Why can't something like this be a multi-national effort? Instead of trying to invade this country or that, or enacting carbon taxes, countries could apply their resources to cleaning this planet up a little. I wouldn't mind my tax dollars going to something like this.

Over 80% of this plastic waste comes from 5 Asian countries. They should be the ones cleaning it up.

Although I agree with you in theory let me ask you this.

If your neighbors dog craps on your lawn everyday we would agree your neighbor should clean it up.

What if your neighbor refuses and the authorities refuse to help you? Are you going to clean up the crap or ignore it until you're buried in it?

True enough.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

This is one amazing young man! I have heard of him before and was so impressed. With more people caring about our environment, there is hope for us yet.

I hope they are able to get a fleet of these things out there. The pollution of our oceans is out of hand.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

This is good. Hopefully they find a way to recycle all this plastic, otherwise where are they going to put it?
.

They can use some of it for this:

Imagine a material lighter than steel, longer-lasting than lumber and strong enough to support 120-ton locomotives. Now imagine that material is made from milk containers, coffee cups and other plastics that we recycle. It's called structural plastic lumber, and the ingenious, nontoxic material has just been invented. ...

They are already manufacturing and selling the lumber for commercial/residential needs. Granted, they probably can't use all of the plastic they gather from the ocean, but hopefully a good portion.

Thanks,
blend