As I stated this summer in a previous article, we could clean up our oceans from plastic. Better, we could do it in a few years. That’s what Boyan Slat, a 20-year youngster from the Netherlands believe.
As Inhabitat noted this summer:
Last year we reported on teenage inventor Boyan Slat’s plans to create an Ocean Cleanup Array that could remove 7,250,000 tons of plastic waste from the world’s oceans.
His proposal for an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms received a lot of criticism – but now, just over a year later, Boyan is back with the results of a year-long investigation that shows his invention does offer a feasible method to rid the world’s oceans of plastic pollution.
In fact, he claims that a single array could remove half of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in just 10 years.
The year-long study sought to determine if Boyan Slat’s array is indeed a feasible ocean cleanup method.
The result? According to the independent experts who have read the full 530-page report (which is even wrapped in plastic recovered from the oceans): IT IS !
So this is great, we may have found a solution to get our oceans rid of plastic. Please read the full article and watch the video to learn out more.
But as I have stated on this very blog dozens of times, there are many other problems that have to be solved. Climate change is chief among all of them but there remains also overfishing, ocean acidification, oil spills…
However, Boyan Slat has shown that it can be done with the right attitude, and the right financing… Let us get to work all together to ensure ourselves and the future generations a livable planet.