CATEGORIE:

Earth’s Oceans: Trash Cleanup.

CHALLENGE:

Design mission to help cleanup garbage from the ocean.

ABSTRACT:

Currently on earth there is a huge problem with the management of garbage disposal. Garbage disposed usually goes to landfills, but with the growing population big portion of it is being disposed directly into rivers and beaches, and consequently end up on to the oceans, and the oceans currents sums all up creating the trash islands. The most famous one is the Great Pacific Garbage Path, with the estimated area of 1,6 million Km². The biggest part of it is composed by plastic that with time affects directly the ecosystem. The objective of this project is to establish a mission to help collect the garbage and propose an action to recycle it.

INTRODUCTION:

Is estimated that 46% of the plastic waste in the ocean is made of fishing net. Fishing nets are made of nylon which is a polyamide, a type of plastic (hydrocarbon), and has a decomposition time of about 30 years. This project consists, with the help of drones, images recognition softwares, and sensors, in easily identify and collect the fishing nets from the oceans.

There are two alternatives of drones, the flying and the aquatic drone. The flying drone might have issues with the weather, if it has a lot of wind, the drone wouldn’t be able to fly. The aquatic drone would be the best alternative as it can avoid these issues.

The idea is, first, to integrate this drones into the Marine boats and the officials would be the drone´s controllers. The drone goes from the boat, under water, and with a special camera, go throughout a predefined area. Using the image recognition software, the drone would be able to identify the fishing net and send a message to the controller with the GPS coordinates for the location. The drone’s routine can be aligned with the ocean’s currents, to prevent nets to end up on the large islands of garbage. As the location is sent, the Marine boat would be able to recover the fishing nets and bring it to land.

PROPOSAL:

Recovered fishing net would be sent to it’s specific recycling center and provide an re-education of the fishing communities so they can understand the damage caused by the improper disposal, better alternatives to avoid accumulation of garbage, keep the ocean clean and create new jobs opportunities. This way the fishing community would be part of this process and will increase their knowledge into a new opportunities of work. This would also be an opportunity for recycling companies and universities to increase their research to develop new alternatives for fishing nets.

RESOURCES:

https://www.nautica.com.br/empresa-americana-lanca...

https://inteligenciaeinovacao.com/rede-de-pesca-bi...

https://economia.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,sof...

https://www.worldanimalprotection.org.br/notí...

https://www.worldanimalprotection.org.br/nosso-tra...

http://portal.antaq.gov.br/index.php/internacional...

https://blog.bemglo.com/pro-mar-projeto-mare-cheia...

https://theoceancleanup.com/

https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/OceanCurrentsCirculati...