[zizee]

> remote controlled barge out in the pacific garbage patch

Whilst I like the thought behind idea, these ocean garbage patches aren't easy to clean up with a barge.

> For many people, the idea of a “garbage patch” conjures up images of an island of trash floating on the ocean. In reality, these patches are almost entirely made up of tiny bits of plastic, called microplastics. Microplastics can’t always be seen by the naked eye. Even satellite imagery doesn’t show a giant patch of garbage. The microplastics of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can simply make the water look like a cloudy soup. This soup is intermixed with larger items, such as fishing gear and shoes.

Better to clean things up at the source. It is estimated that 90% of all plastic waste in our oceans come from just 10 rivers in Asia.

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/great-paci...

https://m.dw.com/en/almost-all-plastic-in-the-ocean-comes-fr...

[ZeroGravitas]

There is actually already a (very nerdy, HN appropriate) project cleaning up the garbage patch.

And yes, they also started building river interceptors as that is more bang per buck. They still seem to think they can clean the existing stuff economically too.

https://theoceancleanup.com/dashboard/

[zizee]

Thanks for the link, it looks like an interesting project, and fun engineering challenge.

It would be interesting to see $ spent per tonne of garbage removed from the rivers vs ocean. Like you said, far more economical to focus on the source. Given no project has unlimited funds, why spend resources on the"garbage patch"? I suspect that they still work on the ocean part because:

1. Is better for fundraising;

2. Is a fun engineering challenge;

3. fun to work on big boats;

4. Helps with recruitment;

[solarengineer]

They do work on cleaning up rivers as well!

Check their Interceptors.

https://theoceancleanup.com/rivers/

Also, the ocean garbage does need cleaning up too