Using Robots to clean the oceans of plastic pollution

43 Pages·2015·3 MB·English

by  Aldous Benjamin Rees

Green solution to ocean plastic
pollution?
Aldous Rees
Content
• Sources of plastic to oceans
• Types of plastics in oceans
• Effects of plastic on marine life
• Methods of cleaning up plastic
• Green IT: Vision 2024 - How it would work
• Conclusions
Sources – Rivers
• Rivers provide large amount of waste to
Oceans
• Rubbish dropped on streets will end up in
river
• Litter blows into rivers
• Sewage works discharge into rivers
• Rivers transport to oceans
Sources – Ship waste dumping
• Ship dump waste over side
• Oil and fuels dumped
• Despite a number of policies from the
International Maritime Organisation, this
waste is not diminishing
• In North Atlantic shipping and fisheries biggest
sea based sources of marine litter
• Ship waste 2% in 2006 and 4.5% in 2013 on
beaches
(Berkely, 2007; Seas at risk, 2014)
Sources – Cargo lost at sea
• Containers can fall over board in storms
• Famous examples include a container of Lego
of Cornwall in 1997
• Container of Trainers in 1980s which helped
map ocean currents
(Cacciottolo, 2014)
Case study- Lego lost at sea
• In 1997 a cargo ship lost containers in a storm of Cornish Coast
• 62 containers were lost 20 miles of Lands End
• 4.8 million pieces of Lego were bound for New York
• Content of 61 other containers unknown
• Lego items include flippers, dragons, daisy flowers, black octopus,
etc.
(Cacciottolo, 2014)
Case study – Lego location map
(Cacciottolo, 2015)
Sources – Sewage and waste water
treatment works
• Microplastic particles can go through filters of
treatment works
• Sanitary items can sometimes end up on
beaches, if filters not working properly e.g. cotton
bud sticks
• In 2006 provided 10.4% of litter on beaches and
4.6% in 2013
• Wet wipes increased by 50% from 2013 to 2014
on beaches
• Flooding and storms make issue worse
(Berkley, 2007; Browne et al., 2011; Marine Conservation Society, 2015)
Sources – Industrial Processes
• Industry can also contribute to waste in
oceans and on beaches
• Items can include dumped oil cans and gloves
Sources – Virgin Pellets
• Virgin Pellets also known as micro-beads
• Used to make other plastic product from
plastic bottles to plastic sheeting
• These can spill from ships or factories
• Come in a range of colours
• Found on most beaches