Solutions:
The Clean Water Act:
Back in the 70’s the restrictions on industries and companies for pollution were pitifully minimal. The government eventually saw the effect and created the Clean Water Act. This bill had a huge impact and helped to clean up much of the polluted waters.
However, two things the act called for never happened:
Fungi (Pestalotiopsis microspora) that eats plastic:
Plastics do not biodegrade naturally, although, under the influence of solar UV radiations, plastics do degrade and fragment into small particles, termed micro plastics.
The fungi, Pestalotiopsis microspora, is the first anyone has found to survive on a steady diet of polyurethane alone and—even more surprising—do this in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment that is close to the condition at the bottom of a landfill.
The Yale team published their findings in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology late last year concluding the microbe is "a promising source of biodiversity from which to screen for metabolic properties useful for bio remediation." In the future, our trash compactors may simply be giant fields of voracious fungi.
Back in the 70’s the restrictions on industries and companies for pollution were pitifully minimal. The government eventually saw the effect and created the Clean Water Act. This bill had a huge impact and helped to clean up much of the polluted waters.
However, two things the act called for never happened:
- Zero discharge of pollutants by 1985 and
- Swimmable waters by 1983
Fungi (Pestalotiopsis microspora) that eats plastic:
Plastics do not biodegrade naturally, although, under the influence of solar UV radiations, plastics do degrade and fragment into small particles, termed micro plastics.
The fungi, Pestalotiopsis microspora, is the first anyone has found to survive on a steady diet of polyurethane alone and—even more surprising—do this in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment that is close to the condition at the bottom of a landfill.
The Yale team published their findings in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology late last year concluding the microbe is "a promising source of biodiversity from which to screen for metabolic properties useful for bio remediation." In the future, our trash compactors may simply be giant fields of voracious fungi.
Plastiki:
The Plastiki is a 60-foot (18 m) catamaran made out of 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles and other recycled PET plastic and waste products. The craft was built using cradle to cradle design philosophies and features many renewable energy systems, including solar panels, wind and trailing propeller turbines, and bicycle generators. JUNK Project: The JUNK raft project was a trans-Pacific sailing voyage from June to August 2008 made to highlight the plastic in the patch, organized by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, environmentally concerned individuals seeking to draw attention to the problem of floating debris, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and the need for recycling.
Project Kaisei: Project Kaisei is a scientific and commercial mission to study and clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a large body of floating debris trapped in the Pacific Ocean by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre. |
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