Why Can’t We Scoop All the Plastic Out of the Ocean?

Lots of people want to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and plastics have a huge impact on ocean environments. But marine wildlife are already adapting to our plastic waste, which means cleaning it up isn't as simple as just... cleaning it up.

Hosted by: Hank Green (he/him)
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[jeremiasdelnegro]

I follow the ocean clean up proyect for 4 years, and yes, they learn every day, since nobody did something like this before . I did see them caring to not get fish or sea animals when harvest. For fish they focus in the speed of the ships, so the fish can get out. Most of the time they harvest dead animals, but they send them to study to keep improving, just in case. The thing is if that big pieces of plastic turn into microplastic thing just get more complicated. Fishers already found plastic inside fish, probably ate by the animal. But this same proyect is addresing the interception of rivers that feed with new plastic to the ocean. Still, a huge job to do.

[dykam]

"Natural breakdown of plastic" is even more complicated than mentioned, as part of that process is that a few pieces of plastic turn in incredible amounts of microplastic, before they eventually break down. Which gives a sense of urgency to the problem, as all plastic just left in the ocean currently, can stick around a long time as microplastic if not removed.

[Jackolantirn]

It's so incredibly hard to implement a cleanup the solution, but so incredibly easy to keep dumping trash and feed the problem

[FrozEnbyWolf]

The point about prevention can't be stressed enough. All the cleanup in the world won't make a dent if we don't stop dumping plastic in the first place. Most of it comes from countries with poor waste management, so it just ends up in the rivers and gets washed out into the oceans.

[Merennulli]

This is always one of the harder things to remember with any form of environmentalism - "the feels" isn't enough. If you actually care about the environment, you have to make sure your solution isn't making the problem worse. Something I've seen far, FAR too many "activists" for the past 40 years fall into.

If the environment matters, then it matters enough to make sure we're right before doing more harm. The fact that we need to do something does not mean just any old something will do.

[CrypticSnow]

I think the other issue that wasn't mentioned is who the heck is going to take that trash and where they will dump it into to create a new land fill site.

[samwill]

You would probably need a pretty big scoop...and for us to stop dumping plastic into the ocean at some point

[jenniferdragonfly]

Love your hat! 🤗 I'm with you on your journey, Hank. Take Care of yourself and beat this. With you all the way! Hugs and Love from South Africa.

[jamesmnguyen]

Reminds me of when there was invasive species somewhere and they introduced another invasive species to get rid of the first one. You might've guessed the second species became a problem too.

[massimookissed]

Presumably neustons were doing just fine pre-plastic, and could revert to doing just fine post-plastic.

[Thoran]

One man's trash is another neuston's treasure.

[ailaG]

I went on an interesting nature tour (mud walk, with water nearly knee high but the boots we were issued were higher) in Deptford creek, London. They said that they used to try to clean up the garbage from the creek floor but they then found out that with the natural creekside having been replaced with more and more skyscrapers, some little shrimp etc have been clinging to those instead. Like into the nets that are part of a supermarket cart's structure.
And they asked us not to help clean, because of that!

I'm sure that they do do a calculated amount of cleaning but yeah

[matthewshields]

Honestly, while ocean cleanup efforts are important, I feel they do more harm than good because people are forgetting what the real problem is, the lack waste management infrastructure. Many “developing” countries lack basic waste management infrastructure and pretty much all countries lack adequate recycling infrastructure.

[kirakaffee]

I wouldn't be astonished if one day, the plastic patch becomes a protected nature reserve because some rare species of critter discovered a niche there.

[lh]

I keep aquariums, they should probably dredge all the stuff onto a shallow strainer barge platform and gently hose it off. maybe float a path of natural fiber behind the barges or something for all the little guys to grab onto

[polemius]

Wow! Nothing is ever simple.
Best wishes, Hank!

[justayoutuber]

Oh we're cleaning it up, indirectly. The fish eat the plastic, and we eat the fish.

[Hong_Mei]

💖thank you Hank! Excellent and highly pertinent coverage! It’s a pleasure learning with you everyday! 🙏

[tellyusi]

Every country must have this kind of conveyor!

[lh]

Someone needs to stand up to the plastic industry in the first place. I'm always dumfounded at how much food is delivered that could equally be in paper or glass, or nothing.