Teen's Project Helping to Clean Up Ocean
Christopher Silva • October 4, 2019
A teenager’s dream of cleaning up the world’s oceans may soon come true.
A teenager’s dream of cleaning up the world’s oceans may soon come true.
Boyan Slat lives in Holland, in Europe. Seven years ago, when he was a teenager, he was swimming in the ocean. He saw more trash in the water than fish. So for a school project, he made a plan to clean up the ocean.
In 2013, Slat formed a group called The Ocean Cleanup. It raised money to put Slat’s water clean-up plan into action.
On September 8, Slat’s plan began.
In the ocean between California and Hawaii there is a lot of floating garbage. It is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP).
Slat’s group will clean it up using a floating plastic tube. The tube will go around the garbage and trap it.
The plastic tube is hollow. It is 600 metres long. A big screen hangs down from it, about three metres into the water.
Wind, waves and ocean currents will push the trash toward the tube. (Fish can swim under the screen.) A ship will pick up the trash and take it back to the shore to sort and recycle it.
The GPGP contains about 1.8 trillion pieces of trash. Most of it is plastic, like bottles, bags and packaging.
Plastic trash is very bad for birds and fish. They try to eat it and may become sick. They may also get tangled up in it.
The Ocean Cleanup says it will be able to clean up half of the trash in the GPGP within five years.
If this first project works well, The Ocean Cleanup hopes to launch as many as 60 more.
About 8 million tonnes of plastic end up the ocean every year. That’s like having a garbage truck full of plastic dumped in every minute.
These are real young people whom we have met or heard from on the Ocean Portal in the past few months. They are kids who know that the ocean (along with the rest of our blue planet) needs our help.
Peter J. Sheehan was born in Newport, RI, the oldest of six. He built his first boat at the age of 13 and has been owned by numerous boats ever since. When rough seas hit his life years ago, had a dream which said, The ocean is truth. Sheehan spent the next ten years trying to understand his dream. Despite his severe dyslexia, Sheehan wrote a book about this phase of his life, called Embrace The Power of Truth. Listen to this Transformative Talk Radio interview from 2010 to get a deeper understanding of where Peter's ideas come from and how he views his world.
Nail this look inspired by the sand, sun and sea. For a home by the water, a nautical-themed space is a natural fit. But decking out a house with life preservers, naval flags and mini ships can take things over the top.