It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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?
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. ...