Island builders want to save the ocean but ask: how to sieve out the micro-plastics?

[Eclipse Now]

What, in separating the micro-plastic from seawater? Mechanical? Like a micro-sieve?

[Illiad]

a micro sieve will sieve out aquatic life too

and i meant to say physical sorry

[lemit]

I thought the main problem with the gyre island was that it was growing faster than it could be collected. Have they taken care of that problem, or is it just that people are thinking about what to do with all the stuff once they have?

 

Thanks.

 

--lemit

[Eclipse Now]

Who's collecting it? Other than a bit of clean-up on Midway island, I'm not aware of any large scale efforts to actually clean this up. Who owns this rubbish? The planetary committee for ocean cleanliness? There is no global government. Hence the emphasis on trying to make this a profitable venture in its own right by creating new real estate.

[belovelife]

Couldn't you just pump the waterand filter it , clean filter , continue

 

I'm sure more fish die from the plasic

than not

so if there is plankton then it would add to the mix,

but it would be a floating island the would probly be nice to visit

 

We sent aircraft carriers to Haiti to make water, mabe we could do a joint effort with china, Russia, and whoever wanted to be a part

[Illiad]

Couldn't you just pump the waterand filter it , clean filter , continue

I doubt its that simple. It would be very expensive, and too slow I think.

I read about someone that had made an island out of plastic bottles on a small lake somewhere once, a few years back. Not entirely impossible, but if you build it in the ocean, it will be exposed to all kinds of weather there, and I doubt the integrity of recycled plastic, unless it has been severely engineered on, which would make them more expensive than other cheaper,tried and more down to earth materials (concrete). Perhaps it should be on a nice calm lake somewhere. Plankton is very very very very important to the ecosystem ( I would have written many more verys, but I want to move on quickly). You cant just take them away and pray the fishes will adapt to it. We can, if we don't live on fish that is.

[belovelife]

Yes, but the plankton will bloom, but how many fish die from micro plastics?

[maikeru]

Couldn't you just pump the waterand filter it , clean filter , continue

 

I'm sure more fish die from the plasic

than not

so if there is plankton then it would add to the mix,

but it would be a floating island the would probly be nice to visit

 

We sent aircraft carriers to Haiti to make water, mabe we could do a joint effort with china, Russia, and whoever wanted to be a part

 

Too much water and plastic to filter at the current rate of deposition. There's no money in this for China, Russia, or others. Easier to say NIMBY, even though the ocean is everyone's backyard.

 

If we can genetically engineer salmon to grow faster, surely we can do something as equally productive and Frankensteinish as to engineer fish to eat plastic. Maybe they need the extra fiber in their diet.

[belovelife]

Generically engineer…

bad idea

evolve, good idea

if a bacteria can break down the plasics in specific salene envyroment

and still feed the plankton, and the plankton don't end up poisoning the fish

cool, but the bacteria should be bred, not genetically altered

 

while instill think that dredgeing a river would be of similar style, but miniscule in caliber, it would work

mabe we do need corporations to do it

goverments are too concerned with other things and are blind to the security threat it poses for our food slice from the ocean, along with the potential loss off diversity from our relatively small rock in the universe

 

but that is going to extremes

[Knothead]

Generically engineer…

bad idea

evolve, good idea

if a bacteria can break down the plasics in specific salene envyroment

and still feed the plankton, and the plankton don't end up poisoning the fish

cool, but the bacteria should be bred, not genetically altered

 

while instill think that dredgeing a river would be of similar style, but miniscule in caliber, it would work

mabe we do need corporations to do it

goverments are too concerned with other things and are blind to the security threat it poses for our food slice from the ocean, along with the potential loss off diversity from our relatively small rock in the universe

 

but that is going to extremes

 

They're trying to make islands out of the plastic. How is it going to help if the bugs eat up all the building material? :artgallery:

 

Personally, I don't think that there could possibly be enough plastic to make much of an island but the idea is to try to get the plastic out of the water. To recover it. Right?

It seems to me that the safest thing for the sea life would be a settling process. Perhaps you could isolate large masses of water from the surrounding ocean and let the contents settle and develop layers while allowing the sealife to continue their life cycles.

Otherwise you are going to have to separate the plastic by using flocculation or centrifugal force. Plankton and other sea critters would have to be a consideration in the development of the process.

They should consult Kevin Costner. I believe that he was involved with a machine that could remove oil from water. The same machine could possibly be adapted to removing the plastic particles.

I have no idea how Kevin's machine dealt with sea life though.

[Illiad]

Yes, but the plankton will bloom, but how many fish die from micro plastics?

Not fast enough without having any sort of impact on the food chain.

And yea, knothead is right, we can't simple throw genetically bacteria into the ocean to eat plastic ! what about the boats that have plastic in contact with water? lol

and i doubt bacteria will naturally evolve to eat plastic. I imagine it must be more poisonous than any sort of 'nutritional' value it's worth, probably taste bad anyway.

[jodie bambridge]

Indeed plastic (petrochemicals) is a massive issue not only to the under water world but the land one too. Consider this if in one U.S. port alone there are 2,000 cruise ships and maybe 20 of those ships recycle their waste, the rest burn or throw overboard that waste. By going to the source of the problem you might get a little closer to the real problem. International protection of our oceans, no dumping or burning and customs to allow all rubbish to be docked. Armed with this, there is so much more rubbish in our oceans that also must be considered!

[Eclipse Now]

Indeed plastic (petrochemicals) is a massive issue not only to the under water world but the land one too. Consider this if in one U.S. port alone there are 2,000 cruise ships and maybe 20 of those ships recycle their waste, the rest burn or throw overboard that waste. By going to the source of the problem you might get a little closer to the real problem. International protection of our oceans, no dumping or burning and customs to allow all rubbish to be docked. Armed with this, there is so much more rubbish in our oceans that also must be considered!

 

On this theme bilge water is a real issue spreading pest species around in most of our ports. But I take hope. As peak oil, gas, and coal hit, and trade in fossil fuels begins to decline, we'll see half of the global shipping fleet retire because that's the percentage shipping black stuff we've dug or pumped from the ground!

[Illiad]

We'll be forced to abandon plastic when our oil runs out or becomes too expensive to make it worthwhile. Failure to adapt will move our civilization quite some time back~~

 

Anyway wont the plastic become brittle over time when exposed to all sorts of conditions out there? The plastic bulk will also be a composite of all sorts of plastic, each with different integrity, unless you painstakingly separate each according to their groups~

[Qfwfq]

What makes most sense is for the collected plastic to be processed into new petrochemical products. It could be as good a source as crude for polymers of similar type.