Boyan Slat's River Device for Plastic Pollution: Pros and Cons

Plastic already in the oceans and environment, with millions of kilos of plastic trash added daily, cannot be easily removed. A new device that removes plastic from rivers before the plastic enters oceans is a needed technology. But if it fails to become part of what must become a comprehensive attack against plastic pollution, then it will achieve little.

The flow of plastic from certain rivers adds to the enormous daily flow of plastic into the oceans. Removing plastic from those rivers before the plastic enters into the oceans is an important step in the  plastic pollution removal effort.

But an even more important step, which keeps getting ignored by the many well funded organizations concerned with ocean cleanups and plastic pollution, is the failure to remove plastic along coastlines and other areas that can only be removed by human labor. There is no technology that can remove plastic from coastlines, mangroves, river banks ,and land based areas. In many developing countries, the source of most plastic pollution entering into oceans, there is massive poverty and a ready labor force of millions of people desperate for work. Employing disadvantaged people to remove plastic pollution is straightforward and effective. In many developing countries, few can afford to be volunteers. Plastic pollution needs a sustained effort for its removal that only an employed workforce can achieve. There is a role for technology and for volunteers to play in the fight against plastic pollution. But as long as people keep expecting technology to save the day, or that plastic pollution can be removed on the cheap by relying on volunteers alone, then the plastic pollution problem will only get worse.

Employed labor, the most effective way to remove plastic pollution from coastlines, mangroves, river banks, forests and many other areas, means paying a fair wage. Most plastic pollution is not recyclable. Paying people only for recyclable plastic that they recover shortchanges them and the environment. People need stable employment and the environment needs all of the plastic trash removed, not just the minority of trash that is recyclable. Interventions that do not pay a fair, consistent wage are not effective in removing plastic from the environment.

To think most of the plastic pollution originates from certain rivers fails to recognize the enormous amounts of plastic that goes directly into the oceans from coastal communities and cities. The dumping of waste, including plastic, directly into the oceans continues in many places. Many ships, fishing boats and so forth dump their trash directly into the oceans.There are many locations where plastic trash on land ends up in the oceans not by forces of nature. Winds, storms and so forth carry enormous amounts of land based trash into oceans.

The enormous amount of plastic waste entering oceans daily from coastal communities and cities must not be underestimated. A large amount of plastic entering into rivers originates in the communities living along rivers. It is commonplace in many developing countries for people living along rivers to dump their plastic trash and other trash directly into rivers. Likewise, the plastic waste of hundreds of millions of people living in coastal areas have their plastic waste go directly into the oceans. Even if all the plastic that flows into oceans from rivers can be stopped, there will still be millions of kilos of plastic flowing daily into the oceans from coastal communities and cities. Refer to a December 13, 2016 YouTube video under my name called, "Coastal communities and The Failure To Save Oceans From Garbage", which shows the plastic waste from just one small coastal community.

Plastic is everywhere, even in the poorest of communities. In many impoverished areas, there is no waste management and nowhere to put plastic trash. The dumping of plastic into rivers and oceans will continue as long as the plastic addiction continues, combined with having no way to properly dispose of plastic.

Most plastic, including plastic bags, wrappers, packaging materials for candies, crackers, toothpaste, cosmetics, and thousands of other items that people use daily end up in the oceans in many places because they are materials that cannot be recycled, and there is no service to collect and dispose of the waste.

Once the river device removes plastic trash from rivers in developing nations, what happens next? Many landfills in developing countries are places where garbage is openly dumped and not secured. Winds and storms return trash in unsecured landfills and mountains of trash back into the environment.

Ensuring plastic waste is properly removed and buried or burned (such as in Sweden, where plastic is burned, used for energy, and contaminants are captured as much as possible), must be no less of a priority than the removal of plastic trash. Otherwise, plastic trash returns to the environment.

Micro plastics, synthetic clothing, the endless supply chain of plastic materials and failure to keep them out of the environment needs to be addressed. No river device is capable of screening out micro plastic particles and fibers.

Plastic pollution is an enormous problem. Boyan Slat's river device is a step in the right direction. But it is but one small part of what must become a comprehensive war against plastic pollution. Funding technology and volunteerism to the exclusion of employment only makes the plastic pollution problem worse.

Proper collection of plastic trash and properly disposing of plastic trash must become a world wide priority. Employed people must be at the forefront of the effort to remove plastic trash already in the environment. The plastic addiction must end. The companies that produce plastic or use it for their products must bear responsibility for the enormous cost of what plastic pollution inflicts upon the environment. Recycling is only of value if it keeps plastic pollution out of the environment. Thus far, decades of recycling have failed. Developed countries must stop shipping their plastic waste to developing countries already drowning in their own plastic under the pretense of recycling.

Unfortunately, the critical need to address poverty and plastic pollution by employing disadvantaged people continues to be ignored or dismissed. There is no device or machine that can go into mangroves, coastlines and many other places where only people can go and remove plastic pollution. Put river devices into rivers, ocean cleanup machines into ocean garbage patches, but do not continue failing to put people in the many plastic polluted areas where only people can go.

Plastic pollution has become another feel good cause, with people latching on to easy answers and inadequate solutions. Plastic pollution is a disaster. This man made disaster, many years in the making, needs many interventions. It is a war that must be fought on many fronts. Unfortunately, people want to focus on feel good, quick fix interventions.