Bytemarks

Back on the Sept. 3, 2008 episode of Bytemarks Cafe, Ryan and I had a chance to talk to Marcus Eriksen and Joel Paschal about the Junk Kraft and their voyage into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This Pacific Gyre or Vortex is an area northeast of Hawaii where the currents swirl and collect the plastic garbage dumped into the ocean by the US and Asia. One year has passed and although we are a little more aware of the situation, not much has been done to clean it up, until now. Project Kaisei recently came onto our radar and is working toward a solution. We had Mary Crowley from Project Kaisei on Bytemarks Cafe this past week to get the update. The plan is to send a vessel into the Pacific Vortex and collect plastic garbage. The goal is to look at ways to convert the plastic into energy and fuel the disposal of the junk. According to the Project Kaisei website:

The Project Kaisei team will embark on a 70 day expedition to the “Plastic Vortex”, on a return voyage from San Francisco to Hawaii in order to

• Study and document the mass of plastic in the ocean
• Test catch methods for removing the plastic particles
• Understand the needs required to undertake an eventual large scale clean-up of the waste material
• Test technology for conversion into an economically viable by-product: diesel fuel.

If the Mission proves successful, and large volumes of plastic can be captured and processed, then a full clean-up operational plan will be initiated within 18 months.

Based on an article on Reuters this past May, the Honolulu Derelict Net Recycling Program is familiar with what it takes to dispose of recovered nets. It’s a lengthy process to cut and shred the nets, remove metal and then converted to energy at the HPower plant. Their insights are helping Project Kaisei devise their strategy for the ocean waste disposal. It’s quite a monumental task and one that will involve international cooperation.

Project Kaisei is aiming to raise $2M and based on their Facebook Causes page has a ways to go, at least from FB contributors. You can also join the Project Kaisei group on Facebook and follow Doug Woodring on Twitter.

Finally, an update on Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummings. They are on a Junk Ride from Vancouver, Canada to Tijuana, Mexico, part of the education program of Algalita Marine Reseach Foundation. And while Marcus and Anna are riding their bike down the west coast, Joel Paschal is on the reseach vessel Algalita heading, as we speak to the Pacific Gyre. I don’t know if here is a rendevous in the making but obviously the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is generating a lot of needed attention.