• NAME TEAM: AAB na NASA
• TEAM MENBERES: Alessandro, Denis, Juliana, Lyla, Ramille
• PROJECT TITLE: Trash Removal System

As it known, 80% of the marine debris are from land source (SHEAVLY, 2005) and are the main reason for severals negative impacts in the ecosystem. Nowadays, there are companies trying to clean the oceans to reduce this effects. However, they need to complete some challenges as cleaning an area as large the oceans, removing the debris there are found as a soup composed by macro and micro debris most of the time invisible to the naked eye and do all of that without affect the existent marine life.

Recent studies published at Nature, Science, Marine Pollution Bulletin and Environmental Science and Technology asserts river basins and estuaries are the source of solid waste for coastal waters and the ocean ((POSSATTO, 2011; JAMBECK, 2015; SCHMIDT, KRAUTH AND WAGNER, 2017). 90% of all solid waste volume are transported by 10 main rivers, as the Yangtze, Yellow River, Hai and Pearl River, Chinese rivers, Amur, which runs through Russia, Indus river, which starts in Chinese Tibet, but has most of its course in India, Mekong of Southeast Asia, Ganges river, an Indian symbol and the Africans Nile and Niger (SCHMIDT, KRAUTH AND WAGNER, 2017).

Considering the difficulties to clean the oceans we propose to create a barrier in the main source of solid waste to prevent that debris reach the subtropical gyres, facilitating the solid waste removal. Our solution are solving the problem in the source using existing technology as The Ocean CleanUp, The Great Bubble Barrier and Saildrone.

The Ocean CleanUp works as an extent membrane which accumulate floating solid waste in The Great Pacific Garbage Patch; The Great Bubble Barrier works redirecting floating solid waste with a bubble barrier; Saildrone are a NASA unmanned surface vehicle created to perform autonomous long-range data collection missions in the harshest ocean environments. All these equipments are concerns about its impacts in marine life using strategies to be an ecofriendly solution.

Putting together these equipments we create The Trash Removal System, a barrier to the solid waste preventing them to get into the ocean. The bubble barrier will be made by a air compressor in land powered by solar, wind or any other sustainable energy, which it will send atmospheric air through a holed tube creating a bubble barrier. In a strategic spot filter membranes will be allocated to retain the solid waste, the length will be defined according to the river's mouth region conditions, but it won't be deeper than 5 meters, due the depth of the layer where the floating solid waste is found.

Considering the river's mouth dynamic, we planning to use Saildrone adaptation to adjust the filter membrane location. The sensors technology coupled at the Saildrone will analyse the current dynamic, as tidal movement, wave energy and river discharge, moving the membrane to a location that will improve the solid waste accumulation. A positive consequence of using the Saildrone are the data collection by multiparameters sensors promoting studies and improving monitoring in this regions.

When the filter membrane becomes full, signals will be sent to satellite to notify the land base that it will send boats to remove the solid waste accumulated. When the solid waste removed arrives to the land will send to the correct destination follow the present legislation, but choosing be disposed at recycle associations or at a landfill.

The proposed system are sustainable, powered by sustainable energy, unmanned and has a high replicability rate to different metaoceanographic conditions, reading, analysing and adjusting according with the river's mouth region conditions. There is a concern of the possible impacts in the marine life, hence the bubble barrier and the filter membrane does not affect animal migration. Another concern are the navigation traffic, but also the bubble barrier does not affect navigation and the system would be allocated in specific locations don't disturbing the navigation.

The using of this system have a plenty of advantages, as prevent the solid waste to spread in the oceans, because as it know they are not held only in the middle of subtropical gyres, but spreading everywhere in the oceans following the oceanic dynamic being transported by currents and eddies.

Other advantage is the lower action of natural forces. Waves, solar energy and current acts breaking down the solid waste in micro particles difficulting its accumulation and removal. At the river's mouth region, the solid waste has lower interactions with natural forces increasing the probability keep your original size facilitating its removal.

The smallest area of occupation it is another advantage. Comparing with the middle of the ocean, it is easier to make an efficiente, faster and cheap cleaning closer to the coastal at the river's mouth. Lastly, the coastal proximity facilitates the cleaning, maintenance and fixing of the equipments.

As an environmental consequence, the interaction between the marine life and the solid waste it will be reduce because the solid waste will be preventing from entering the ocean. The conservation and maintenance of the ocean generate immeasurable positive impact to the planet, as it is essential to life on Earth, and consequently the perpetuation of our species.

To the society, the solid waste that would become pollution in the ocean becomes a job opportunity using our removal system. Through the correct disposal of the solid waste removed it is possible generate work and income for the region population, besides to generate revenue for potential entrepreneurs. In the long-run, as the waste won't reach the subtropical gyres, the effort and costs to clean up the ocean it would be dismissed.

• Reference:

Jambeck, Jenna R., et al. "Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean." Science 347.6223 (2015): 768-771.

Possatto, Fernanda E., et al. "Plastic debris ingestion by marine catfish: an unexpected fisheries impact." Marine pollution bulletin 62.5 (2011): 1098-1102.

Schmidt, Christian, Tobias Krauth, and Stephan Wagner. "Export of plastic debris by rivers into the sea." Environmental science & technology 51.21 (2017): 12246-12253.

Sheavly, S. B. (2005). Sixth Meeting of the UN Open-ended Informal Consultative Processes on Oceans & the Law of the Sea. Marine debris – an overview of a critical issue for our oceans. June 6-10, 2005. http://www.un.org/Depts/los/consultative_process/c...