Flotsametrics and the Floating World. Asia Power Solutions. Envision Plastics - Recycled HDPE Resins —Pure as Prime. The Fallacy of Cleaning the Gyres of Plastic With a Floating "Ocean Cleanup Array" As the policy director of the ocean conservation nonprofit 5Gyres.org, I can tell you that the problem of ocean plastic pollution is massive.
In case you didn’t know, an ocean gyre is a rotating current that circulates within one of the world’s oceans – and recent research has found that these massive systems are filled with plastic waste. There are no great estimates (at least scientific) on how much plastic is in the ocean, but I can say from firsthand knowledge (after sailing to four of the world’s five gyres) that it’s so pervasive it confounds the senses. Gyre cleanup has often been floated as a solution in the past, and recently Boyan Slat’s proposed ‘Ocean Cleanup Array’ went viral in a big way. The nineteen-year-old claims that the system can clean a gyre in 5 years with ‘unprecedented efficiency’ and then recycle the trash collected. Editor’s Note: This piece was written in response to a story published in 2013. Photo by Stiv Wilson/5Gyres.org. Ocean gyre. The five major ocean gyres A gyre in oceanography is any large system of rotating ocean currents, particularly those involved with large wind movements.
Gyres are caused by the Coriolis Effect; planetary vorticity along with horizontal and vertical friction, which determine the circulation patterns from the wind curl (torque).[1] The term gyre can be used to refer to any type of vortex in the air or the sea, even one that is man-made, but it is most commonly used in oceanography to refer to the major ocean systems. Major gyres[edit] The following are the five most notable gyres:[2] The Ocean Cleanup - Boyan Slat. In 2011, together with friend Tan Nguyen, Boyan Slat embarked on writing his final paper in the last year of secondary education, researching the possibility of remediation world’s oceanic garbage patches. During this project, they performed analyses on concentration of particles between 90 micron and 333 micron, plastic/plankton separation, plastic depth measurement devices and amount of plastic within the top layer of the gyres.
Spending over 500 hours on the paper (instead of the required 80 hours), it has won several final paper prizes, including Best Technical Design 2012 at the Delft University of Technology. Boyan continued the development of his concept during the summer of 2012, and revealed it several months later at TEDxDelft 2012. Great Pacific garbage patch. The area of increased plastic particles is located within the North Pacific Gyre, one of the five major oceanic gyres.
The Great Pacific garbage patch, also described as the Pacific trash vortex, is a gyre of marine debris particles in the central North Pacific Ocean located roughly between 135°W to 155°W and 35°N and 42°N.[1] The patch extends over an indeterminate area, with estimates ranging very widely depending on the degree of plastic concentration used to define the affected area. The patch is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of pelagic plastics, chemical sludge and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre.[2] Despite its size and density, the patch is not visible from satellite photography, nor even necessarily to a casual boater or diver in the area, since it consists primarily of a small increase in suspended, often-microscopic particles in the upper water column. Discovery[edit] Charles J. Formation[edit] In 2012, Miriam C. Bioplastik – Biologische Alternativen zu Plastik Dokumentarfilm. Video online sehen.
Reguläres Plastik wird aus Erdöl hergestellt, doch es gibt auch biologisch hergestelltes Plastik das ganz normal kompostiert werden kann und kein giftiges Erdöl in der Herstellung benötigt oder Giftstoffe hinterlässt.
Doch warum wird dieses Bioplastik noch kaum verwendet? Der Grund für den seltenen Einsatz von Bioplastik bei Verpackungen, Schaumstoffen oder Gebrauchsgegenständen ist oft noch der etwas höhere Preis in der Herstellung. Oft wird hier jedoch kritisiert, dass bei Plastik aus Erdöl ja nicht mit den ganzen Kosten gerechnet wird und Entsorgung z.B. hinzugerechnet werden müsste. Doch aller Widerstände zum Trotz arbeiten Wisenschaftler unter anderem an der TU Graz intensiv daran Bioplastik weiter zu entwickeln und auch in der Produktion günstiger zu machen. Rohstoffe sind hier z.B. Die Alternative Bio Plastik ORF, Newton Rating: 7.7/10 (23 votes cast) Bioplastik - Biologische Alternativen zu Plastik , 7.7 out of 10 based on 23 ratings. Mater-Bi. Mater-Bi ist ein Stärkeblend auf der Basis von Maisstärke, der als biologisch abbaubarer Werkstoff (BAW) klassifiziert ist und mit den üblichen Verfahren der Kunststoffverarbeitung verarbeitet wird.
Eigenschaften[Bearbeiten] Mater-Bi ist der Markenname für einen Stärkeblend des italienischen Unternehmens Novamont S.p.A. Es ist ein Biokunststoff, aus dem 1992 die ersten biologisch abbaubaren Abfallsäcke in Deutschland bestanden. Mater-Bi beruht auf der Basis von mehr als 85 % Maisstärke. Er ist kompostierbar, GVO-frei, bleifrei, wasserlöslich, rückstandsfrei verbrennbar sowie bei sortenreiner Trennung mehrfach recyclingfähig.
Seit 2005 läuft zudem eine Entwicklungskooperation zwischen Goodyear und Novamont zum Einsatz von Mater-Bi als Zusatzstoff für Kautschuk in der Reifenproduktion. Novamont S.p.A. - Chimica Vivente per la Qualità della Vita - Home.