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The Ocean Cleanup System 001, a floating U-shaped barrier created by The Ocean Cleanup, arrived in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in October.
After several months at sea, it was determined that the system was not holding the plastic, announced the organization earlier in December.
The organization announced on December 29 that part of the device was released from the system and was removed from the system. The entire floating system, along with more than 4,400 pounds of recovered plastic, is brought back to shore.
Slat told CNN earlier this year that the patch contained about 1,800 billion pieces of plastic, weighing 80,000 metric tons.
Joost Dubois, communications manager at The Ocean Cleanup, told CNN in September that the system should be able to recover 50 tons of plastic from the ocean every year.
During a regular inspection on December 29, an ocean cleaning crew discovered that part of the system was detached.
"It is important to note that the main section of 580 meters and the end section of 18 meters are completely all the partitions are intact and two outriggers are attached to the end section, which prevents any tipping, "said Slat in the blog article. "In addition, no material has been lost, no risk to the safety of the crew, the environment or the shipping traffic has been recorded."
The company is investigating the cause of the breakup and thinks the system will be operational again this year.
Problems Related to Plastic Collection
Earlier in December, the organization had stated that the system was concentrating plastic, but could not retain it.
"In the end, the only way to really see how the system would work was to integrate the environment for which it was designed," said the organization.
The organization says to work to identify the cause. One of the possible problems is that the system is not moving fast enough.
"It seems that the system sometimes moves more slowly than the plastic, which allows the plastic caught to leave the system again."
The organization also stated that the system, which they named Wilson, had an effect on the current when it interacted with water, resulting in small plastic plates that moved and piled around of the system.
The organization also observed that the system creates waves, possibly preventing the plastic from entering the mouth of the device.
"We will continue to test and monitor the system until we can make the necessary changes, if necessary, which will then be implemented later," the organization said. "We are confident that these tests will tell us more about Wilson's current status, which hopefully will allow us to make the cleaning system operational soon."
Some critics have questioned the ambitious system of cleaning the oceans even before it reaches the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Miriam Goldstein, director of ocean policy at the Center for American Progress, said that deploying a device of this size would create its own environment and that marine life would develop on or under it.
Goldstein also questions the efforts being made to collect plastic in the middle of the ocean instead of attaching it in the first place to prevent waste from reaching the "ocean". ocean.
Dave Alsup of CNN contributed to this report.
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