Beach Litter

Robots

Unmanned, electric robots can be of great help to tackle beach litter accumulation in heavily populated coastlines. Solarino Sand Beach Cleaner Robot is an electrically driven and remote-controlled beach cleaning robot that works on wet and dry sand terrain to remove rubbish and solid waste from the beach. This is a very eco-friendly waste management solution since it does not use internal combustion engines or hydraulic systems and therefore it is a very silent non-polluting machine that will not damage the beaches or disturb the coastal wildlife.

Vacuum Cleaners

It often becomes difficult to pick many tiny degraded particles of plastic on beaches even with a large scale crew. Enviro Buggy vacuum cleaner is helping sieve out microplastics from the Cape Town beaches, also making the cleaning process less time-consuming and preventing waste ingestion by birds and other animals on the beach.

Coastal and Ocean Pollution

Earth observation can be useful to monitor some water quality parameters from space – for example, the Group on Earth Observations through its AquaWatch, Blue Planet, and GeoGLOWS initiatives are developing new public-domain data and analytic resources for better monitoring the oceans, coastal areas, and freshwater systems. Satellite remote sensing can currently manage to get estimates of a few parameters such as chlorophyll, turbidity, and cyanobacteria/algal blooms and other parameters through correlation/machine learning and more through hyperspectral images, augmentation with in-situ data, and modeling.

See below an interactive map of chlorophyll estimation accessible on WRI’s Resource Watch site:

Unmanned Aerial Drones for Marine Pollution Response

Korean Marine Environment Management Corporation (KOEM) has played a key role in preserving marine ecosystem through collecting the deposited and floating waste of the ocean, comprehensively investigating the marine ecosystem, registering and managing marine protected area, monitoring the marine water quality, and operation the marine environmental information system. KOEM has been using drones for preventive patrol activities since 2017 and it has been utilized for detecting oil spill and floating waste during only daytime.

Overcoming the limitations of existing drones, KOEM has developed a hybrid drone exclusively for marine pollution accidents. This drone has four essential functions for responding to marine pollution control, including nighttime exploration, distribution of oil-preventing drugs, information broadcasting, and measurement of concentrations of air-toxic substances.

It is also expected that the concentration of air pollution can be measured in the event of leakage of toxic substances such as Hazardous Noxious Substances (HNS), which will greatly expand the safety, spatial and temporal range of workers. Through this convergence drones, it has become possible to respond more actively to marine disasters and accidents such as marine pollution accidents.

Ocean Plastics

Plastics have gone from the miracle material that was perfect for packaging and lasting forever to a global environmental concern as microplastics are being found everywhere on earth and its health impacts are not well known. There is now a concerted effort around the world to reduce, reuse, and recycle plastics.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) at least 8 million tons of plastic are dumped into the oceans every year. Rivers are major contributors to this kind of pollution, carrying plastic from the world’s inner regions to the marine environment. Inland contributors are storm runoffs, sewer overflows, industrial activities, illegal dumping and beach visitors. Much of the litter accumulated in coastal waters is also pulled offshore into the oceans. The fishing industry, nautical activities and aquaculture are responsible for the ocean-based plastic pollution.

Try an interactive look at the plastic pollution issue.

This is not an issue that just affects rich countries. Even the poorest parts of the developing world are facing this problem.

There are also options being explored for non-recyclable plastics. An Australia based company Integrated Green Energy (IGE) Solutions , has recently been awarded the IAPH World Port Sustainability Award, and offers technology solutions to the global crisis of plastics in waterways.

Crowdsourcing Plastics

With the ubiquitous presence of smartphones, there are many efforts to crowdsource information from concerned environmentalists around the world to raise awareness of trash, including plastic.

This crowdsourcing is not just for collecting data, but also for collecting ideas on how to manage plastic waste.

In Indonesia ,and initial called Social Plastic , started by plastic bank to encourage citizens to recycle and reduce plastic waste, citizens exchange plastic waste collected with tokens that can be exchanged for services such as healthcare , pay schools or exchange for currency. Payments are tracked using blockchain to ensure maximum security and reduces losses.

Solutions have also been crowdsourced – e.g. Hackathons to find new ways to employ AI to monitor plastics in waterways.

Sensors for Microplastics

The plastics that enter the oceans/water bodies are broken down by sunlight, ocean waves and microbes and broken down into microplastics, of between 1 micrometer and 1 millimeter in diameter. These can be found throughout rivers, lakes, oceans, wildlife, and evening in drinking water. Inadequate solid waste disposal is thought to be the main contributor to the microplastic pollution.

In partnership with the United States EPA , Draper , and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution , an onsite real time microplastics sensing system is being developed that will identify both the amount and types of microplastics present in an underwater area. The system is an automated dying ( using a fluorescent dye called Nile Red ) and analysis of seawater samples which causes the microplastics to fluoresce brightly and enables them to be identified from surrounding particles. The sensors can be deployed on docks, buoys, boats or small autonomous underwater vehicles. This project will launch a plastic pollution index to measure and monitor trend predictions on microplastic particle concentrations in oceans and coastal areas around the world.

Collecting & Using Plastics

There are many initiatives (e.g. PlasticBank ) setting up innovative frameworks to collect plastics in a way to have socio-economic and environmental benefit.

Others are trying (e.g. using booms ) to collect plastic waste and abandoned fishing gear using booms to coral such detritus in areas such as the largest accumulation of plastic in the world’s oceans called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch caused by an ocean gyre (whirlpool) that is three times the size of France!

Lost and abandoned fishing gear could be a significant part of the ocean litter that have many adverse impacts. A new development in using disposable fishing gear appears promising as outlined in the video below.

Plastic Alternatives

To help combat plastic waste from plastic water bottles and packaging a sustainable packaging startup, Notpla , has developed an innovative alternate package for drinkable water and mitigate container contamination. The water is packaged in a fine ecological and edible membrane, made from seaweed using a process called spherification. The spherical water is called Ooho is easy and cheap to make and it takes 4-6 weeks to degrade making it a far more sustainable option to plastics. The edible membranes are being used to package other beverages and condiments, in the London marathon of 2019, the Ooho was used in place of 30000 plastic bottles for marathoners.

Blockchain

To reduce plastic pollution in one of the most polluted areas of the world, the South Asian countries have also turned to cryptocurrencies, managed by a mobile-based blockchain app that have proven useful to reduce plastic pollution by creating a system that provides a consistent, above-market rate for plastic waste, incentivizing its collection. Individuals who gather plastic can trade it for money, items, or services. The collected plastic is recycled and sold to make new products, such as feedstock for 3D printers. Over 31 million pounds of ocean-bound plastic has been recovered as October 2020, the equivalent of 707 million plastic bottles, while creating thousands of jobs in developing nations. ( Plastic Bank).

Replacing Styrofoam Buoys with Environmentally Friendly Alternatives

Plastic pollution is a global problem that is facing all corners of the earth. Plastic doesn’t stay in its original form but breaks down into microplastic which is hazardous to the ecosystem since fish will consume it and it will eventually up in the food chain. The aquaculture business in Korea uses 55 million buoys, where 41 million buoys are made from Styrofoam. Styrofoam accounts for 55 percent of all plastic waste in the sea. To reduce the level of plastic pollution, an eco-friendly buoy was developed that is cost affordable.

Robots for waste collection

Drones are also being used to monitor water pollution in several rivers and lakes, from capturing large numbers of detailed images to quantitative measurements of hydrometric and ecological data, in addition in other parts of Asia, the Mekong River is being monitored for plastics with drones and also with a Japanese developed device called an Albatross to trap and study how much microplastic is getting into the river.

Many countries across the world today are facing the problem of increasing plastic waste in their water bodies. A Dutch company has created a remote-controlled drone called WasteShark which is being used to clear waste plastics, bio-waste and other debris from the waterways. This aquarobot has the capacity to clean up to 500 kg waste per day and provides real-time water health quality data/depth. It uses LIDAR and ultrasound to prevent collision with other objects in the waterways. It also has customizable sensors which can measure salinity, chemical makeup pH balance and temperature.

Marine pollution is a result of some coastal and oceanic activities but primarily due to the contribution of inland catchments. This requires a common awareness of environmental issues in a spatial context that could cross traditional sectoral and administrative boundaries. As the Ocean Economy gets more developed in the coming decades, this will require more collaboration across countries for more harmonized standards and approaches to manage related pollution aspects.

Go to Oceanic Sectors