Marine Debris - Debris Removal

Debris Removal

Techniques for collecting and removing marine (or riverine) debris include collection by hand and specialized beach-cleaning machines. Baltimore) gathers debris in the water; such activities are often undertaken regularly where floating debris poses danger to navigation. For example, the US Army Corps of Engineers reports removing 90 tons of "drifting material" from San Francisco Bay every month. The Corps has been doing this work since 1942, when a seaplane carrying Admiral Chester W. Nimitz collided with a piece of floating debris and sank, costing the life of its pilot.

Elsewhere, "trash traps" are installed on small rivers to capture waterborne debris before it reaches the sea. For example, South Australia's Adelaide operates a number of such traps, known as "trash racks" or "gross pollutant traps" on the Torrens River, which flows (during the wet season) into Gulf St Vincent.

At TEDxDelft2012, Dutch student Boyan Slat unveiled a concept for removing large amounts of marine debris from the 5 oceanic gyres. With his concept called 'Marine Litter Extraction', he proposes a radical clean-up that would use the surface currents to let the debris drift to specially designed arms and collection platforms. According to Slat's calculations, a gyre could realistically be cleaned up in 5 years time, collecting up to 7.25 million tons of plastic combining all gyres. He however does note that his concept would only apply for the top 2 meters, and a 'radius' of approximately 500km, and will therefore have to be paired with 'radical plastic pollution prevention methods in order to succeed'.