Boyan Slat's Ocean Cleanup: Garbage Patch, Plastic Pollution And What Is Missing

First, the problem. Trillions upon trillions of plastic particles, pieces and fibers (fibers from synthetic clothing, polyester, nylon, acrylic, etc.) already are in the oceans. Every single day, millions upon millions of pounds and kilos of additional plastic enters into the oceans.
Much of the plastic breaks down and disperses. Waves, tides and storms brings a lot of the plastic already in the oceans back to coasts and rivers. Lands and rivers brings new plastic into the oceans. Meanwhile, plastic, Styrofoam and other oil based non biodegradable materials keep breaking down into smaller and smaller particles that eventually are impossible to capture or recover. Eventually these particles break down into pieces too small to be seen and that never degrade. And so, there they are, trillions upon trillions of plastic particles endlessly polluting the oceans, coasts, lands and rivers and other waters, and endlessly harming wildlife and humans.
A recent study of plastic waste collecting in the ocean garbage patches suggests this waste is coming from ships, and that it is not originating from the land. So where are all the millions of kilos of plastic entering into the oceans daily going? It disperses, and does not make it to the garbage patches.
Even if the garbage patches are completely cleaned, it will not help with the enormous amount of plastic already in the oceans, with millions of additional kilos entering every day.
Plastic pollution cleanup efforts need three strong approaches. Of the three, the one that is most effective and needed the most is the one least funded and least considered.
Volunteer cleanups, such as beach cleanups, receive a lot of attention and funding. These work best in developed countries where people can afford to be volunteers. But even in developed countries, these efforts are often sporadic and not consistent. Many under served areas receive no cleanups.
In developing nations, there is mass poverty. Few can afford to be volunteers.
Employing people in need of work - disadvantaged people - to cleanup coasts and other areas, an actual employment project that can and should employ millions, is near nonexistent.
The much advertised technology that Boyan Slat offers receives millions of dollars of funding.
Just to be clear, if his technology works, as he says it does or will in the future, then let us hope he cleans the garbage patches as he says he will.
But imagine if even one tenth of the millions of dollars his organization receives was directed at employing disadvantaged people to remove plastic from coasts and other areas. An employed force cleaning up plastic pollution from coastlines and other areas will remove far more plastic pollution than any technology or volunteer effort ever can, at far less cost than any technology.
This is not to say Boyan Slat should not continue his effort to cleanup the garbage patches.
But the failure to employ the low tech, far less costly simple approach of providing employment to disadvantaged people to do hands on cleanups means losing the critical opportunity to prevent trillions of kilos of plastic pollution already littering coastlines and other accessible areas from breaking down further into forever damaging unrecoverable pieces.
The plastic pollution cleanup portion of the plastic pollution disaster needs three things:
1. Employed workers doing the cleanups.
2. Volunteer cleanups.
3. Technologies that can clean areas that laborers cannot cleanup, such as ocean garbage patches.

Of the three things needed for plastic pollution cleanups, the core of the effort must be on employed workers because that is what will achieve the most in terms of helping people and in removing the most amount of plastic.
Volunteerism and technology, instead of being the primary focus of the effort, as they are now, must be seen as the supplementation to the core effort.
How effective is Boyan Slat's technology?  There needs to be an objective determination and not rely only on his word or that of his organization. People also need to know clearly that even if the garbage patches of the world are completely cleaned, it will have only removed a small amount of the plastic already in the oceans.
Employed people glad to receive work and that are paid a decent, fair wage, will remove far more plastic pollution than any volunteer effort or technology can ever hope to achieve.
Instead of waiting for a technological miracle and allowing the oceans and coasts to get further destroyed, why not immediately implement what is most effective and works?  An army of people employed to remove plastic pollution from coastlines and other areas is needed now. Every day that passes without this army means another day of destruction to wildlife, oceans, people and more.