Ingenious – doesn't matter that he's 19 years old, the impact that this would have is enormous. Quoting from boyanslat.com:
Why move through the oceans, if the oceans can move through you? Fix the sea water processors to the sea bed, and save vast amounts of funds, manpower and emissions.
Not just that, but because the solution does not involve mesh nets, there's close to no bycatch. Further, the solution is self-supportive, being powered by solar and wave power, thus independent of external energy sources.
This concept is so efficient, that we estimate that by selling the plastic retrieved from the 5 gyres, we would make in fact more money than the plan would cost to execute. In other words; it's profitable.
/via +Tyger AC
19-Year-Old Develops Ocean Cleanup Array That Could Remove 7,250,000 Tons Of Plastic From the World’s Oceans
19 year old Boyan Slat has designed the Ocean Cleaup Array which could reduce the world’s oceanic garbage patches by removing 7,2500,000 tonnes from them.
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As the article that +Martin Wong just posted notes, for some reason, ocean cleanup seems to attract more than its share of strange ideas asking for money.
That article also has several links to other marine professionals commenting and debunking this concept.
It's a great idea but I'm wondering how they will overcome some fairly basic problems and a whole load of questions on implementation…
http://deepseanews.com/2013/03/the-ocean-cleanup-the-newest-of-the-new-plans-to-remove-marine-plastic/
+Anne-Marie Clark Not having seen implementation plans, my assumption was that the installations would be stationed at locations where booms or gyres were in place anyway to break incoming waves. And I'd be surprised if his home Netherlands doesn't have a lot of them, given that a significant amount of the Netherlands is below sea level. Of course, I could be completely wrong.
Be cautious about claims like this—especially before you give your money. Maritime professionals will tell you that this concept is based on numerous erroneous assumptions. These include about ocean activity, weather effects, marine life, what a boom does, what a gyre is (HUGE—see maps below—and not what the article says it is), the hazards to navigation and human life, that attaching something to the ocean floor like this is feasible—and no accounting for the grave damage to the fragile ecosystem of the ocean floor—and a bunch of other factors why this is a bad idea and would not work.
For more info, see this from NOAA:
http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.html#4
Some of the best inventions are self supporting.
Selling the plastic is fine but where is it finally going? Me thinks it's the oceans again.
Unfortunately and sadly, Ryein Goddard's comment is true. And because the affects of this sort of pollution isn't in the backyards of the average person, they just don't care.
+NAZRI BARDAN make i think a lot ,thinks
If one person on earth contribute 1 dollar, he might be able to build 10 units of it. The worst thing is to pray for him. Genius will always die early.
He is 19 and he already have an idea on how to make our world a better place. Consider you're 50 years old and the only thing you know for the past 50 years is throwing rubbish.
more profit than cleaning up landfills
This will never happen. No profit in it.
only problem is the dead zones where the trash collects in floating islands
The next generation is starting to look like the one we are going to depend on as my generation {i am 54] seems to forget when clean earth mattered more then $$$$$
Normally I might think this would never happen, but the key word in the article was profitable. That's what could make it actually happen. Previously it was just an annoyance that nobody cared [enough] about, but if there's money in it, hell yeah.
+Karyn Menzies put it another way: the next generation isn't a bunch of jerks, there are some smart folk in it who will make miracles for your retirement and old age!
*read
Hate hearing young people develop stuff….makes me think what was I doing?! Lol At least there's hope for the next generation ….I'm gonna make my daughter ready science and engineering books during all her free time haha
HOPE MAKE A MAN STRONGER
I don't think so, +Aivaras Kivilius.
Fish move by themselves, avoiding this apparatus.
thanx for posting
If this project can be self-financing remains to be seen, as the catched plastics are rather low grade and their value may not offset te costs of collecting the material. still, it is a very good idea, also because it is making clear to the public that we have a real problem here with those garbage patches in the oceans.