In today's global ecological environment problems, Marine garbage pollution has become a serious challenge that can not be ignored. The harm it brings is constantly impacting the Marine ecosystem, and has also aroused widespread concern of the international community. Walking into the beaches that were once regarded as holiday paradises, what you see is no longer just golden sands, clear waters and swaying coconut groves. Behind this beauty lies the grim truth that the oceans are seriously polluted.
Australia's Gold Coast, the beachfront where Peter Segelinsky grew up, holds some of his best memories of the sea from his childhood. At that time, the clear water shimmered in the sun, the endless blue ocean was full of mystery and vitality, he enjoyed running on the soft sand, swimming in the blue transparent water. However, times have changed, and now when he sets foot on the beach again, he is greeted by mountains of plastic waste. Whether it is the big white plastic bag that can be scooped up when swimming in Byron Bay, my hometown; Or when I was diving in Greece and found that there were more plastic bags in the sea than fish. Or in Indonesia, encounter with the tail tightly wrapped around the pink plastic cotton swab small seahorse, these images deeply hurt his heart, let him truly feel the ocean is "surrounded by plastic" horror.
Peter Segelinsky's feelings were shared by fellow surfer Andrew Turton. Once, Andrew took a yacht from Los Angeles to Hawaii, which should have been a pleasant trip to enjoy the ocean scenery, but was ruined by a lot of garbage floating in front of the sea. Looking at the dense litter around him, he suddenly had a bold idea: since trash cans can be found everywhere on land, why not set up one in the sea?
Peter Segelinsky, an aspiring young man who had worked as an industrial designer at a plastic products factory, heard about Andrew's idea and jumped into the challenging research and development work. In the next four long years, he devoted himself to design and experiment, constantly trying various materials and technologies, experiencing numerous failures and setbacks, but never gave up. Finally, he successfully developed a "ocean trash can" called "Seabin".
The Seabin is a cylindrical shape that floats steadily on the sea and is fixed to a specific position on the dock. Once the pump on the shore is activated, powerful suction pumps a steady stream of nearby water into the barrel. The key collection bag inside is made of fine natural fiber mesh, which ensures that any debris larger than two millimeters in diameter cannot escape and is accurately intercepted. At the same time, in order to avoid causing secondary pollution to the sea, the barrel is also cleverly installed with a water and oil separator, which can effectively separate the oil and cleaning agent, and ensure that the clean water after treatment can flow back to the sea without pollution. In actual tests, this seemingly small Seabin can collect 1.5 kilograms of garbage per day, and when the collection bag is filled with 12 kilograms of garbage, it needs to be cleaned. According to this calculation, in a year, it can remove more than 500 kilograms of waste from the sea, which is equivalent to recycling 20,000 plastic bottles or 83,000 plastic bags, and its cleaning capacity is not to be underestimated.
However, the current situation of Marine litter pollution is far more serious than we think. According to the authoritative data provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency, about 80% of the world's Marine litter comes from land. Since the 1950s, the scale of human plastic production has exploded, with a cumulative production of about 8.3 billion tons of plastic. In 2014 alone, humans discarded 57.3 billion plastic bottles and used an average of 1 million plastic bags every minute. These discarded plastic products eventually flow into the ocean through various ways, bringing a huge disaster to the Marine ecology.
In 2015, a paper published in the journal Science revealed a surprising fact: about 8 million tons of plastic waste flow from the land into the ocean every year, an average of one truckload of garbage into the sea every minute, and on every 30 centimeters of coastline, there are five garbage bags filled with plastic. This data directly shows the severity of Marine garbage pollution, but also sounded the alarm for mankind.
With the continuous accumulation of Marine debris, it poses a deadly threat to the survival of Marine life. A long-term study by scientists at Imperial College London found that in the 1960s, less than 5 percent of dead seabirds had debris detected in their stomachs, but today that figure has soared to 90 percent. More than a million seabirds die each year from becoming entangled in plastic or ingesting it. What is more frightening is that according to the current trend, it is expected that by 2050, 99% of seabirds will have to eat plastic, which will undoubtedly bring disaster to seabird populations.
On South Georgia Island in Antarctica, British zoologist Lucy Quinn developed a strong bond with a pair of albatrosses during her more than two years working on an Antarctic expedition. Every day, she watches them take turns flying tens of kilometers to the sea to feed, then returning with food to feed their young. What pains her, however, is that these albatrosses often bring back not actual food, but various pieces of plastic. It turns out that when plankton breaks down and sticks to floating plastic debris, it emits a smell similar to rotting seaweed, which tricks the new parent albatrosses into thinking it's food and bringing it back to the nest. Eventually, two young birds died after eating the plastic. When Lucy dissected them with her own eyes in tears, she found that one baby's stomach had been pierced by a sharp plastic toothpick, and another's esophagus was clogged with balloon fragments. The surviving chicks also spit out pieces of plastic wrap, food bags, disposable cutlery and plastic bottles as they ruminated. This scene, let Lucy angry, she bluntly: "What makes me really ashamed and angry is that humans have created this problem."
In addition to seabirds, other Marine life has not been spared. At one "turtle" hospital in Kenya, more than half of the turtles were brought in by fishermen after ingesting plastic. The hospital's large tables are filled with all kinds of plastic waste that local residents have picked up from the beach, including fishing nets, nylon ropes, woven bags, straws, yogurt bottles and plastic lighters. Even on a sunscreen bottle, there are clear signs of fish bites. More worrying, however, is the large amount of plastic debris that is too small to be effectively collected because it is mixed with dried seaweed.
In early 2017, Norwegian zoologist Terje Rislevand found more than 30 plastic bags in the stomach of a stranded whale. The bags severely blocked the whale's stomach and intestines, causing it severe pain and a false sense of fullness. The poor whale looked very thin, malnourished and had almost no fat on its body. This incident once again shows the deadly danger of Marine debris to large Marine life.
In the face of such a serious situation of Marine garbage pollution, the World Economic Forum issued a report warning that if strong control measures are not taken, it is expected that by 2025, the weight of plastic garbage in the ocean will reach one-third of that of fish; By 2050, there will be more plastic than fish by weight. This prediction has undoubtedly sounded a heavy alarm bell for mankind, and let us deeply realize that it is urgent to solve the problem of Marine litter.
Although the emergence of Seabin has brought new hope for Marine debris cleanup efforts, it also has certain limitations at present. Due to its design principle and structural characteristics, Seabin can only be installed in relatively calm waters such as wharfs, ports, inland waterways and lakes, and can only collect floating garbage on the horizontal surface. It can do little about the rough seas and the garbage suspended in the water. Sherri Rippeat, coordinator of the Marine Debris Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, noted that Seabin cleanup is relatively limited in scope and volume, and has limited effectiveness in addressing the large and complex problem of ocean pollution.
Dubbed a "time bomb" by Marine scientists, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has expanded fivefold in the past decade, with an average of 1 million pieces of plastic in every square kilometer of ocean, according to Nature. Viewed from space, the garbage patch looks like a giant "black scar," as striking as the mighty Great Wall. This phenomenon has not only seriously damaged the Marine ecological landscape, but also brought unprecedented disasters to the Marine ecosystem.
Faced with the global problem of Marine litter pollution, people around the world are actively exploring solutions. Bojan Slat, a Dutch man born in the 1990s, has designed a 100km floating barrier, trying to use the power of wind and ocean currents to intercept floating garbage. He hopes to clean up 42% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch within 10 years through this device. Meanwhile, the NGO Ocean Conservancy advocates tackling the problem at source, "catching" trash near rivers and coasts before it enters the ocean. To this end, they have built the world's largest database of Marine debris, and over the past 32 years, more than 12 million volunteers have participated in Marine debris removal operations, which have accumulated 100,000 tons of debris.
Today's ocean is no longer the pure blue home that it once was, and a large amount of plastic waste is like a bowl of thick plastic soup, which permeates every corner of the ocean. Among them, microplastics with a particle size of less than 5 mm are known as "PM2.5 in the ocean" because of their tiny particles and wide distribution. Like the sand in a clam shell, these microplastics, while seemingly insignificant, cause the most serious harm to Marine ecosystems. They are easy to be eaten by Marine organisms, and then continue to accumulate in the biological body through the food chain, and eventually threaten the balance and stability of the entire Marine ecosystem.
Pete Segelinsky is well aware of the enormity and complexity of Marine debris cleanup, and he acknowledges that the Seabin may not be the perfect solution to the problem of Marine debris, but he believes that it is at least a good start and points us in the right direction. He is currently leading a team working around the clock on research and development to develop finer filters to capture microplastics that are barely visible to the naked eye. At the same time, he also plans to use the plastic waste recovered by Seabin to create a new "ocean trash can" to realize the recycling of resources and further promote the development of Marine environmental protection.
In Peter Segelinsky's view, while cleaning up the garbage in the sea, it is more important to solve the problem at the source, that is, "turn off the faucet." He repeatedly stressed that while technology can alleviate the problem of Marine debris pollution to a certain extent, it will never be the fundamental solution. Mankind must fundamentally rethink how we treat the ocean, change our production methods and consumption habits, reduce the use of plastic products, strengthen the management and recycling of waste, and only in this way can we truly protect our blue home.
In the current era of increasingly serious Marine pollution, Seabin is only a small invention, but it carries human's love and hope for the ocean. Its emergence, let us see the possibility of change, but also let more people began to pay attention to the problem of Marine litter. We hope that all sectors of society can work together to participate in Marine protection actions, and restore the vitality of the ocean through scientific and technological innovation, policy guidance and public awareness.
(Editer：admin)
