Materials News
Upcycling ocean plastics Plastics, the modern age’s wonder material, has a “design failure” that can pose harm to the environment, if not managed well, according to experts who are seeking ways to make plastics a key part of marine litter solutions. Meanwhile, brand owners are upcycling plastic waste collected from the oceans to make useful items, says Angelica Buan in this report. The grand ocean clean-up begins Plastics are too valuable to waste. That’s why, beyond the aim of purging marine litter from our oceans, major cleanup efforts also make sure that as much of the recovered plastics are reused and recycled, as minimum resources in making useful products. As much as nearly 13 million tonnes of plastic waste enter the seas every year, accounting for 60-80% of the total solid pollutants in the oceans, according to a conservative estimate by scientists.
The Ocean Clean-up recently launched the System 001, the world’s first clean-up system
How to eradicate this problem is the motivation of several projects and innovations that prove waste plastics can also become part of the solution. Recently, the much awaited grand ocean clean-up began its two-week dry-run from San Francisco Bay in the US state of California. The world’s first clean-up system by Dutch non-profit organisation, The Ocean Clean-up, led by environmental visionary Boyan Slat, launched the world’s first ocean clean-up system known as System 001. Towed by the vessel Maersk Launcher, which has been made available to the project by A.P. Moller-Maersk and DeepGreen, its current charter holder, it headed to a location 240 nautical miles offshore for a trial before it was towed toward the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGH), 1,200 nautical miles offshore, to start the clean-up. The group describe System 001 as a giant Pac-Man that will skim the surface of the ocean for plastic wastes. “The system consists of a 600-m long U-shaped floating barrier with a 3 m skirt attached below. It is designed to be propelled by wind and waves, allowing it to passively catch and concentrate plastic debris in front of it. Due to its shape, the debris will be funnelled to the centre of the system,” said the group.
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But there is more to this project than meets the eye. The system will be deployed in GPGH, the world’s largest accumulation zone of some 1.6 trillion pieces of plastics (weighing 80,000 tonnes, according to a study published in March), where it will collect the waste and return them to land within six months. This waste will be recycled into sellable products to raise funds for the clean-up operations, in line with the Ocean Clean-up organisation’s goal of reducing the amount of plastic in the world’s ocean by 90%, by 2040. Eyewear brands’ circular fashion statement Throwing light on marine litter, Minnesota-headquartered eyewear brand Norton Point, and the Corona and Parley collaboration are producing eyeglasses from ocean plastics. Martha’s Vineyard-based Norton Point, which was founded in 2015, first line of eyewear is made from recovered high-density polyethylene (HDPE) ocean plastics. The company’s mission is to be able to remove a pound of plastic from the ocean for every sold pair of sunglasses; and to reinvest 5% of its net profits into global clean-up efforts. Meanwhile, Mexican beer brand Corona and environmental non-profit organisation Parley for the Oceans have also launched a limited edition sunglasses made from Parley Ocean Plastic, a material made from upcycled marine plastic debris. It also incorporates new forms of upcycled marine debris intercepted on islands, coastal communities, beaches, underwater and on high seas. This is in line with the Clean Waves initiative the partners launched in May.
The Corona x Parley collaboration is producing eyeglasses from ocean plastics
Clean Waves is a creative fundraising platform aimed at boosting the use of eco-innovative materials in fashion and industrial design. Like Norton Point, the team-up committed to protect an island (to add to its