Join the wave and sign up for an event! Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc.2018. “Everyone agrees that plastic waste does not belong in our oceans or anywhere in the environment,” says David Taylor, chairman of the board, president and chief executive of P&G, and currently the chairman of the AEPW. Cleaning up oceans, rivers and warm sandy beaches are fun for everyone! Try to get your favorite spots to only offer straws to customers who ask for them, or better yet, not offer them at all. There are also efforts to clean up plastic waste when it washes up on beaches. Take your own containers or cloth bags to your favorite store and purchase in bulk. There are still some hurdles to overcome before they can scale up the system. In 2014, Kim Martini and Miriam Goldstein published a detailed critique of The Ocean Cleanup’s plans, pointing out that there was no evidence to show that the barriers could actually capture plastic and that they were likely to break or become covered in organisms such as algae and molluscs. Urged to End Bluefin Tuna Overfishing in Gulf, sign up for our newsletter to stay updated. We’re studying microplastics in the Gulf of Mexico, sign up for our newsletter to stay updated! Inspired by rubbish he encountered when scuba diving in Greece aged 16, Mr Slat devised a scheme to use large floating barriers where the currents would accumulate the plastic that floated near the surface. While such innovative schemes have drama, most experts on plastic waste believe the solution to a cleaner sea lies on land, not least with the two billion people whose waste is not properly collected and processed. Larger pieces such as plastic bags can choke animals such as turtles or dolphins, while smaller pieces – microplastic – are effectively everywhere, entering the food chain with unknown consequences for marine and human consumers. Ask your favorite coffee shop to fill your reusable to-go mug and you might even get a discount. Bring your own containers from home for any leftovers or to-go orders. “P&G remains committed to doing our part to help stop the flow of plastic to the ocean and we know it will take partnerships and collaboration to make meaningful progress.”. Here are ten easy things you can do today! Rob Kaplan, founder and chief executive of Circulate Capital, says: “By partnering with the world’s leading corporations, many of which are direct competitors, we can leverage their patient capital and technical know-how to build on-ramps for institutional capital at scale over the longer term.”. Instead of bagging fruits and vegetables at grocery stores, leave them loose in your basket or bring your own cloth bags. Dispose of fishing line properly by recycling it. Broadway worker: My career of 15 years vanished overnight, See Pete Buttigieg's viral Fox News moments, the Ocean Cleanup says its latest prototype, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, set sail from San Francisco in September 2018, a 60-foot section broke free in January and the whole thing had to be towed back to shore. 5. The recognition from global companies is an encouraging sign that genuine momentum is building behind the plan to stop plastic from reaching the oceans in the first place. There is also the matter of tiny fragments of microplastics. It plans to partner with cities to help them improve their waste management, and to develop new technologies for preventing plastic waste. The Ocean Cleanup system is a U-shaped barrier with a net-like skirt that hangs below the surface of the water. Tell your dry cleaner you will take your clothes home without the plastic bag, thank you. Read up on the latest products that have been deemed harmful to the ocean or environment (like this recent study on why black plastic can't be recycled the same way as other plastics… We rely on advertising to help fund our award-winning journalism. Despite quickly raising almost $2.2m to make his plan a reality, the barriers’ first real-world test in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a region where floating plastic is unusually dense because of swirling ocean currents, saw the barriers lose plastic almost as fast as they collected it. It already includes nearly 30 companies and has committed more than $1bn, with the aim of investing $1.5bn over the next five years. By the end of December one of the barriers had been damaged and Mr Slat decided to tow them back to port, earlier than planned, for repairs. It moves with the current and collects faster moving plastics as they float by. The sea turtle on the right was found entangled in balloon strings by one of our volunteers. Slat’s organization, The Ocean Cleanup, has raised an estimated $31.5 million to develop a drifting V-shaped system designed to collect plastic pollution at the ocean’s surface as currents push it along. All rights reserved. Ocean plastic is a scourge upon sealife and shoreline communities. (Photo on left: © Ron Wooten). “I urge all companies, big and small, and from all regions and sectors, to join us.”. We can wean ourselves off plastic by looking for alternatives like glass, ceramic, stainless steel or wood. Any such life at the surface risks being caught by the barriers in at least as great a quantity as any plastic. All rights reserved. Plastics are one of the most common pollutants found in our oceans. Could this be the cure to our plastic problem? It’s important that we read labels carefully. It will be made into fish habitats, plastic benches or even plastic flooring. The team hopes to have a prototype mucus filter this year. Dumping ground: plastic waste represents a significant hazard for sealife, Team effort: beach clean-ups help animals that live or breed near the coast, the barriers lose plastic almost as fast as they collected it, a detailed critique of The Ocean Cleanup’s plans, it made 320,000 bottles of Fairy washing-up liquid entirely from recycled plastic and ocean plastic, it will double the number produced from more than five million to 11 million, Enter the Anthropocene: we are now living in Earth’s Plastic Age, Identifying the scale of the problem of plastic waste. There have been setbacks which Slat called "unscheduled learning opportunities," since the system. Morningstar: Copyright 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. A project called GoJelly, funded by the European Union to the tune of €6m, is exploring whether jellyfish mucus could be used to collect microplastic.
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