According to Tim Johns with ABC's 7 Chicago, two ships sent out to develop ways to clean the Great Pacific garbage patch in the middle of the ocean returned to San- Francisco on Friday - September 6th. These ships brought with them exhilarating and hopeful news regarding the work they were doing. They were sent out several years ago to develop the required technology to clean the ocean patch of garbage. It was unclear whether or not they would be successful in their efforts.
However, to everyone's delight upon their return, it was discovered they had- in fact- been successful. They have provided a total cost of completion of between approximately 4 billion and 7.5 billion dollars. Once they secure funding, they can ramp up operations over the next two to three years.
From that point when "the clock starts running" and they become fully operational, the entire Great Pacific Garbage patch can be completely cleared in 5 years. Moreover, the removed garbage will be sorted and recycled, further reducing pollution emissions by not contributing to landfills or trash incineration.
For context, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is 620,000 square miles or three times the size of France. It is currently the largest accumulation of ocean plastic anywhere in the world. This is a brilliant example of the positive change we can create by combining talent and the desire to help others. Way to go, Team! I can’t wait to see it unfold over the next few years. Removing this amount of garbage, not to mention the plastic, from our oceans won’t just change the game in terms of cleaning and restoring our planet; It will save countless wildlife.
Xoxo-
Love, Johnny
Great article. I watched a documentary on ocean garbage a few years back......it is long overdue to be cleaned up- humans must do better!!! All the plastic and aluminum manufacturers should pay their fair share. It should be funded through corporate taxes, corporate taxes need to be increased anyway to where they were back in 1980 before Ronald Reagan begin ruining this country.
And every state should have the bottle bill, it's a deterrent to throwing plastic pop cans and aluminum pop cans in the garbage, in the ditches. And we should go back to paper, bamboo grocery bags - not plastic. It's mind-boggling to me that the bottle bill not a US law, the Europeans are so much better at recycling than lazy Americans.