Plastic vs. Ocean Cleanup Array

"Argh! Ocean Pollution!"~Trapped Seal

When I first learned about The Ocean Cleanup Array, I was also made aware of a few other things. One, that despite my best efforts at recycling plastic, a very large amount (32 million tons of plastic waste in 2012 alone, according to the EPA) is generated and not recycled. Two, this waste does not just sit in landfills, or continually bluster around the semi-empty parking lots of run down malls, but ends up in the oceans. In fact 90% of the trash floating around the ocean is plastic. This plastic gets caught up in the ocean currents, and currently has created 5 great garbage patches across the world. 

5 Gyres

Let me preface this next part with a more thorough definition of "Garbage Patch." According to the National Ocean Service, these are not patches in the sense that they are islands of plastic (yet a quick Google search reveals such trash heaps do exist) but rather have a more 'soupy' consistency, as the plastic begins to break into smaller pieces, it still remains but as smaller chunks circulating around. Okay, now that a more accurate image is in your head, let us continue.

The garbage patch most talked about is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which resides roughly between California and Hawai'i. Plastic builds up due to circular moving ocean currents called Gyres, that overtime draw in plastic waste until it reaches the clam center of the Gyre where the plastic builds up as it cannot leave once drawn in. Obviously, this is terrible for marine life, and has large repercussions for coastlines as it engorges with more waste.

Pretty 'Great' isn't it?

All of this begs the question, besides recycling all of the current plastic in use, how the heck does one go about cleaning up this disaster of a mess? Well that was the purpose of my post, dear friends. This brings me back to The Ocean Cleanup Array.

The "Manta-Ray" Like Ocean Cleanup Array

 
I stumbled across this concept while watching a very excellent TED talk given by the inventor, a then 19 year old Boyan Slat, who described his giant manta-ray-like device designed to carefully collect these plastic bits, without collecting the wildlife that somehow still manages to live within the waste. This idea completely blew me out of the water (pun intended). Not only does this device carefully collect the plastic, it doesn't ensnare wildlife with nets or filters, and, perhaps most important to some, it can turn a profit, as all of the plastic it collects is recyclable.

So, if it is so awesome, why don't we have fleets of these things cleaning up our oceans? For one, it is still being tested. According to their website, they should have a preliminary report of how effective and 'feasible' this project is by the end of this year. For two, they are in need of some added brain power to this already well-endowed brain trust. If you or a friend's brain is available, they highly encourage you to apply. Thirdly, despite many estimates from other qualified brains, we really don't have a good idea of exactly how much garbage has built up over the years. How deep is it? How dense? We don't quite know, which poses a little bit of a problem when trying to create a plan in cleaning it up. Regardless, the Ocean Cleanup Array is by far the best plan that I have encountered (besides everyone doing their part to recycle at home) and I just really wanted to share it.

Hopefully, in the future I will have a follow-up post about the feasibility report that is anticipated to be released come the end of 2014.

Brighteners

No, that isn't a real word. I want to write about great things in the world, but unfortunately the first word that came to mind to describe such things I want to write about is "awesome" which I quite detest because it is used for every single thing, actually awesome or not. So I thought that perhaps I would make up a word to describe the things that are happy, and make my day just a bit brighter, as brighteners. See what I did there. Autocorrect is loving this. Anyway, a brightener is anything, big or little, that makes whatever you are doing just a little bit more awesome. I suppose it just had to make its way in there somehow. Anyway, a brightener that I discovered as of late, and that certainly makes my day a bit more awesome (on most occasions) is the eccentric Doctor Who television show. It is wonderful on so many layers, it only makes you sad when Moffat throws a curve ball at you, here's to you Ponds. Regardless, it is heartwarming, adventurous and wonderfully clever. It certainly makes my days a little more bright. It can be found on Netflix, but also other internet sources, if you know where to look. 

So give it a go. The old ones are cheesy in the most delightful 60's era way, and the new ones are well-written and thoroughly enjoyable. I hope they make your days just a little bit brighter. 

Word of the the day: Brightener, see above for a good and proper definition. 

Observations 1

Second post. Not exactly keeping tidy with my resultion but habits take time to form; Rome wasn't built in a day, after all. 

I realize in these past few days that in fact it might not be the easiest to post about all of the awesome things I find going on in the world every single day. My first realization is that I have, perhaps uncomfortably high expectations for each one that simply does not match the the time I have available, and secondly I realized that sometimes I would rather write about other things. My resultion is simply writing, so perhaps if I just get in the swing of writing, the rest of what is in my head for my high-expectation posts will come along easier with time. 

Anyway, this is called observations, because sometimes I think about things and they can't quite escape my head until I write them out. I figure this will probably be a reoccurring theme so I titled it observations 1. Lots of brain power and cleverness went into that, I know. 

My observation has plagued me most intently the past several days, it had occurred before but the nature of tiny made me not care that much. I have noticed that when I am back in my hometown, I don't quite feel myself. Which is quite strange, no? I feel as though the normal thing would be that people feel comfortable and themselves at home, and it just does not bode that way for me. I do not think that it is my home, or the people within it that makes me feel so, I think it is perhaps the town, and that I never felt at home here. In fact, my goal was always to leave, I feel more myself almost anywhere else in the world besides this place, which it find severely odd. Now the the side effect of this, is that when I am home, it truly feels as though all energy, motivation, and desire to do anything is gone. I don't know what it is about this place but almost no matter what I do, and no matter how badly I may want to do it, i am continually am too exhausted to do it in a reasonable time frame if at all. When I leave I get it all back, and I can accomplish all that I need to, but when I am here everything is bleak and there is no pressure to do anything,regardless of how important. This bothers me quite a lot, mostly because I do not understand fully why this occurs. Does this happen to anyone else? I feel like it affects the entire town, yet no one realizes what exactly is happening. 

Well, that is my post for January 2 of this year. Here's to hoping I can keep this going. 

Word of the day: Esoteric, understood by or meant for only the select few who have special knowledge or interest. 

As in, this blog may have a rather esoteric audience 

2014: That New-Year Smell

Ahh... A new year, a new beginning, a new list of things I wish to make permanent, or remove, from my life. I'll keep this one simple, on New Year's Eve I saw a nice little ditty that said, "tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book, write  a good one." And I thought to myself, writing, why, I haven't sat down and done that it a good long while and 365 pages is not too terrible to ask of oneself; why, that is only a page a day! Completely manageable! So I have only one resultion that I will ask of myself this year. To write, just once a day, maybe more if I am feeling particularly verbose, but simply to write each day. 

I have completed school, I have a new job for this new year, and a new goal for my writing, so I think it can be managed. I hope to improve the process of extracting my thoughts and penning them to paper, and perhaps improve my vocabulary at the same time. In fact, I am enacting a mandatory new word-a-day rule. Because I can. Annd, with my swanky graduation present (it's an iPad air) I hope that this will be more managable than when I tried to blog from my smartphone. It seemed great, until the iPad. 

And in case you were wondering, I have decided to write about the awesome things I find going on in the world. I have discovered so many in the past 8 months, I really want to share them with whomever will listen, and honestly even some who don't want to listen, because that is the way I am. Of course, new job, new state, new side of the country, I will most certainly be posting about some things going on in my own life as well. 

Well, I only have 15 minutes until it is day two of the new year, I best publish before I break my resolution on the first day. 

Word of the day: 

Prolix: Excessively long and wordy. 

As in, a great many of my posts may indeed be prolix.