OFFSHORE supply ship, Maersk
Launcher, made available by AP Moller-Maersk and DeepGreen, the
ship's charter holder, are towing a device created to remove waste plastic at
sea from San Francisco Bay to a location 240 nautical miles
offshore for a two-week trial.
Once the testing is completed, the
unmanned cleanup system that is a U-shaped floating barrier, 2,000 feet long
with a 10-foot skirt will be towed to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, 1,200
nautical miles offshore, to start the cleanup.
The System 001 cleanup device
created by Dutch non-profit organisation The Ocean Cleanup is designed to be
propelled by wind and waves, allowing it to passively catch and concentrate
plastic debris in front of it. Due to its shape, the debris will be funnelled
to the centre of the system and then periodically removed by a ship and taken
to shore to be recycled, reported American Shipper.
It is equipped with lights,
anti-collision systems, cameras, sensors and satellite antennas to prevent it
from becoming a hazard to navigation and communicate when it needs to be
emptied.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the
world's largest accumulation zone of ocean plastics, is situated halfway
between Hawaii and California. The patch contains 1.8 trillion pieces of
plastic and covers an area twice the size of Texas.
If successful and funding is
available, The Ocean Cleanup aims to build a fleet of 60 systems focused on the
Great Pacific Garbage Patch over the next two years. The Ocean Cleanup predicts
that the full fleet can remove half of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch within five years.
Source : HKSG.
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