The study of marine plastics has a cyclic theme as cyclic debates focus on cleaning up plastic, spinning and gathering at two polar ends of an ocean current. To date, the majority of those debates, especially among government officials, have not led to the implementation of a solution to the pressing marine problem. However, the solution may have just rolled in (I will admit that these puns are getting to be a bit excessive). This past May, the Water Wheel (really creative title…) was set-up in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Personally, I think Southern Fried Science’s “ solar-powered, trash-eating, waterwheel-driven garbage scow” nickname is the real winner.
The Water Wheel is made up of three parts working in unison – a water wheel, several rakers and a steady conveyor belt. The water wheel, which harnesses energy from the current, powers the rakers and belt. The rakers push garbage onto the conveyor, running at a sustainable speed, which then deposits the collected garbage in a large dumpster to be properly disposed of. This large dumpster sits on the water and functions separately from the device. Thereby, replacing filled dumpsters with empty ones, is a simple swap. To supplement the energy produced by the water wheel, the device is also solar-powered. It’s basically the better-looking cousin of the old-fashioned water wheel. So, I guess I can let the boring title thing slide.
The Water Wheel represents the immaculate product of a truly well thought out project. Not only does the device use renewable energy, it stops plastics before they reach an ocean gyre, where the real problems begin, a “no-mans-land” so to speak. If the Water Wheel were to be situated at the mouth of every large body of water leading to the ocean, virtually no discarded plastics would come into contact with marine life and be further broken down into microplastics. Personally, I believe setting up devices like the Water Wheel should be a top priority in the marine plastics community rather than “high-sea cleanup projects”. As Southern Fried Science so simply pointed out “Attacking the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is treating the symptoms, not the cancer.” After we cut off the source of plastic to the Patch then, we can reasonably talk about effectively cleaning it up.
Baltimore Inner Harbor Solar Powered Water Wheel
Article from IFLScience – “SolarPowered Water Wheel Could Clean Ocean Plastic”: http://www.iflscience.com/environment/solar-poweredwater-wheel-could-clean-ocean-plastic
Article from Southern Fried Science – “Charm City’s Water Wheel: The first truly feasible ocean cleaning array is already afloat”: http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=17362&_ga=1.238528640.1804081251.1406485204
By: Neeli on November 6, 2014 at 3:39 am
It’s very true that “Attacking the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is treating the symptoms, not the cancer.” An article I found by The Conservation even goes as far as to say, the plans to clear plastics in major garbage patches may cause more damage to the environment than leaving the plastic where it is. It’s not about where the plastic ends up but more about the route the plastic takes from the beaches to the garbage patches. Because the water in the gyres is nutrient poor, most of the gyres have more plastic than ocean life.
The more pertinent concern is that the plastic is passing through “ecologically and economically important regions”, like our fishing sites. If we cleaned garbage patches toady, they would just reappear in a few decades. It’s more important now to spend our resources preventing pollution with ideas like this really great Water Wheel.
The very interesting article!
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/04/23/comment-stop-polluting-you-worry-about-ocean-garbage
By: Brett Branco on November 11, 2014 at 2:41 am
I can’t get over how many plastic bottles this water wheel is collecting. So, we can think about that while we consider the advertisement that Julia brought to our attention in her post…
http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/branco2014/really-ny/
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