Ocean Clean Up Aff 1.0

Ocean Clean Up Affirmative NAUDL 2014-15
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OCEANS CLEAN UP AFFIRMATIVE

Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 2
Glossary ......................................................................................................................................... 3

Affirmative Case .................................................................................................................... 4-10

INHERENCY
Answers to: Ocean Clean Up Coming Now .............................................................................. 11-2

OCEAN OF PLASTIC ADVANTAGE
Ocean of Plastic Advantage - Extensions .................................................................................... 13
Answers To: Clean Up Efforts Kill Sea Life .................................................................................. 14
Answers To: Clean Up Efforts Kill Plankton ................................................................................. 15
Answers to: Plastics Dont Kill of Species .................................................................................... 16
Answers to: Food Chain is not protected by clean up .................................................................. 17

SOLVENCY
Solvency- Funding key................................................................................................................. 18
Answers to: Clean Up Fails-Size of the ocean ............................................................................. 19
Answers to: Clean Up Fails- Ocean Conditions ........................................................................... 20
Answers to: Clean Up Fails- Sea Life .......................................................................................... 21
Answers to: Economic Viability ................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.-3
Answers to: Experts Agree ........................................................................................................ 234
Answers to: Depth of the Ocean ................................................................................................ 255
Answers to: Depth of Plastics / Sinking Plastic .......................................................................... 266

PLASTIC TRANSTION DISADVANTAGE ANSWERS
Uniqueness Answers ................................................................................................................... 27
Link Answers ............................................................................................................................... 28

BAN PLASTIC BAGS COUNTERPLAN ANSWERS
No Solvency- Clean up needed ................................................................................................... 29
No Solvency- Other types of plastic ............................................................................................. 30
Permutation : Double Solvency .................................................................................................... 31
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Summary
There are giant piles of trash in the oceans that largely float just below the surface. They are
filled with broken down plastic bags, bottles, fishing gear and anything else plastic that has
made its way to the ocean. Sunlight breaks down the plastic into little pieces which are easy
for sea life to eat. This trash universe kills animals who eat it, create transportation systems
for invasive species and poison the food chain all the way to humans.

Here is a quick video on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh6lkv1udb0

The affirmative would fund a system of passive collection buoys which would be strategically
placed in the ocean with really long buoys to catch the plastic and funnel it to a central
collection platform. Details on how it works below. The plan would just have the federal
government steal the idea and expand the project greatly.
[___] Quick overview of the how passive collection works
Matthews, consultant, eco-entrepreneur, green investor, 2014
(Richard, Plastic Waste in Our Oceans: Problems and Solutions, April 10,
http://globalwarmingisreal.com/2014/04/10/ocean-garbage-problems-solutions/)

In 2012, Dutch Aerospace Engineering student Boyan Slat unveiled a concept for removing large
amounts of marine debris. He subsequently formed an organization called The Ocean Cleanup.
This approach is not only cost effective, it is potentially profitable. His idea involves an
anchored network of booms that world work like a giant funnel. Propelled by the oceans
surface currents, debris would drift into specially designed arms and collection platforms
where it would be separated from plankton and recycled. Slats calculations suggest that
using his methods, 7.25 million tons of plastic can be removed from garbage gyres in as little
as five years.

And a video on how they plan to fix the problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh6lkv1udb0
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Glossary

biodegrade- a substance or object capable of being decomposed by bacteria or other living
organisms.

biodiversity- the diversity, or variety, of plants and animals and other living things in a particular
area or region. For instance, the species that inhabit Los Angeles are different from those in San
Francisco, and desert plants and animals have different characteristics and needs than those in the
mountains, even though some of the same species can be found in all of those areas.

cetaceans - marine mammals commonly known as whales, dolphins, and porpoises

ecosystems- a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

endocrine system- the collection of glands of an organism that secrete hormones directly into the
circulatory system

gyre- a circular pattern of currents in an ocean basin.
There are five massive garbage gyres, one is located in the Indian Ocean, two in the Pacific Ocean
and another two in the Atlantic Ocean. Garbage gyres come together as the trash gets caught in
circular ocean currents. This causes stray garbage to move until they collide and merge with one
another. Matthews, 2014

invasive species- an organism that is not native and has negative effects on the environment it is
introduced to

logistical the planning, implementation, and coordination of the details of a business or other
operation.

photodegradation describes the effects of sunlight on the tons of plastic floating out at sea.
Essentially, the sun's rays dry the plastic to the point that it shatters

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Affirmative Constructive
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Affirmative Case 1/7
Contention 1 is the growing ocean of plastic.
Our obsession with plastic produces millions of tons of trash to dump into the oceans. These
plastics break down but do not biodegrade. We are poisoning our oceans with a galaxy of
trash islands that kill fish, coral and threaten the health of the oceans themselves.

Weishar, news and political reporter and founder of Quiet Mike, 2014
The Ocean Size Problem of Ocean Pollution, Quiet Mike, http://quietmike.org/2014/04/07/ocean-
size-problem-ocean-pollution/

Our oceans cover approximately 71% of the Earths surface and contains 97% of the Earths
water. With those kind of numbers, youd think it would be hard for us humans to pose a threat
to it. Well, humans are capable of anything when we put our destructive minds to it.

While the media has under reported the threat of climate change, it has completely ignored the state
of our oceans. From oil spills to plastic bags to random sea junk, our oceans may soon
resemble some of our dead lakes. The situation is more desperate than you think.

Most people think oil spills do the most harm to our waters. It certainly does damage to be sure,
however plastic is far worse than oil. There is currently seven million tonnes of plastic floating
around in our oceans.

Your may have heard of the Pacific and Atlantic garbage patches. They are not large trash
islands in the middle of the ocean as some believe. They are more like galaxies of garbage,
populated by millions of smaller trash islands that may be hidden underwater or spread out
over many miles. These garbage patches are made up of mostly plastic. Unfortunately, plastic
breaks down into smaller particles (or micro-plastics) and is then consumed by marine life.
This is what makes plastic so bad and difficult to clean up.

A lot of it cant be seen, and therefore the size of these patches are almost impossible to estimate.
Ive heard they are as little as the size of Texas (if you can call that small) or as big as the continental
United States. I imagine the truth lies somewhere in between.

Plastic uses up only 8% of the worlds oil supply, but we use it now more than ever. In fact, weve
produced more plastic in the last ten years than the previous hundred years combined. Our
addiction to plastic isnt going away anytime soon and because plastic is not biodegradable, it
is not going away either.

According to Captain Paul Watson, the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, if
we dont change our ways, all the worlds fisheries will collapse by 2048. He also believes that
all our coral reefs may be gone by as early as 2025. Pretty scary.

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Plastics floating in the oceans provide a unique problem since they break down into tiny
pieces but take hundreds of years to disappear.

Cho, staff blogger for the Earth Institute, 2011
(Renee, Our Oceans: A Plastic Soup, Earth Institute, 1-26,
http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/01/26/our-oceans-a-plastic-soup/)

The lightness and durability that make plastic such a useful and versatile material for
manufacturers also make it a long-term problem for the environment. Trash Travels estimates
that plastic bags can take 20 years to decompose, plastic bottles up to 450 years, and fishing
line, 600 years; but in fact, no one really knows how long plastics will remain in the ocean.
With exposure to UV rays and the ocean environment, plastic breaks down into smaller and
smaller fragments. The majority of the plastic found in the ocean are tiny pieces less than 1
cm. in size, with the mass of 1/10 of a paper clip.

Despite the huge amount of trash involved, most pieces concentrate in gyres or giant circuits
located in each of the earths oceans.

Surfrider Foundation & UCLA School of Laws Environmental Law Clinic, 2013
(Federal Actions to Address Plastic Marine Pollution,
http://law.ucla.edu/~/media/Files/UCLA/Law/Pages/Publications/CEN_EMM_PUB%20Surfrider%20U
CLA%20-%20Plastics%20Solutions.ashx)

Marine litter tends to accumulate in a limited number of sub-tropical convergence zones
known as gyres or garbage patches. Currently, there are five gyres: North Pacific, South
Pacific, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Indian Ocean. Studies have shown that marine litter
deposited in coastal areas tends to accumulate in the gyres within two years of entering the
ocean. The litter remains cycling within these gyres for many years, with more than 200,000
pieces of plastic per square kilometer in some areas. The sizes of the gyres are difficult to determine
because they are constantly expanding and moving, but the gyres are estimated to contain 100
million tons of marine litter.

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Contention 2 is the Danger of Ocean Plastics

Ocean debris effects marine life by trapping, choking or poisoning animals that it comes in
contact with. Plastics kill millions of animals each year and could destroy entire species.

Slat et al, founder and lead designer The Ocean Cleanup Project, 2014
(Boyan, A Feasibility Study, http://www.theoceancleanup.com/fileadmin/media-
archive/theoceancleanup/press/downloads/TOC_Feasibility_study_lowres.pdf)

Every year we produce about 300 million tons of plastic, a portion of which enters and accumulates in
the oceans. Due to large offshore currents, plastic concentrates in vast areas called gyres, of which
the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between Hawaii and California is the best known example.

The damage to sea life is staggering: at least one million seabirds, and hundreds of thousands
of marine mammals die each year due to the pollution. Even worse, the survival of many
species, like the Hawaiian Monk Seal and Loggerhead Turtle, is directly jeopardized by plastic
debris.

Marine species often become entangled in larger debris, leading to injury, illness,
suffocation, starvation, and even death (NOAA, 2014). Smaller fragments can be mistaken for
food and eaten, causing malnutrition, intestinal blockage and death. When marine animals eat
plastic, harmful chemicals move up the food chain. Ingestion of and entanglement in marine
debris by marine animals has increased by 40 percent in the last decade. Furthermore, plastics
can transport invasive species and toxic substances over great distances.

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For animals not killed by the plastics survival becomes harder as invasive species ride trash
islands to new ecosystems and destroying their balance and threatening all life in the oceans.

Newitz, editor in chief of io9 and PhD in English and American Studies from UC Berkeley, 2012
(Annalee, Lies You've Been Told About the Pacific Garbage Patch, 5-21,
http://io9.com/5911969/lies-youve-been-told-about-the-pacific-garbage-patch)

The "plastisphere" is a term coined by marine biologist Erik Zettler to describe the creatures
like water skaters who thrive in an environment with hard surfaces in the water. They are
similar to creatures who cling to piers or the hulls of ships. Before human-made hard surfaces
were everywhere, they would have lived on rocks or flotsam. The problem with the plastisphere is
that it's radically changing the balance of a sea ecosystem that was once mostly just open
ocean creatures.

"One thing that people worry about is that hard surfaces can transport invasive species,"
Goldstein said. "Some animals are good at hitching a ride and they can be destructive. By
adding big chunks of plastic these species can move around better, and could be introduced
to places like the Northwest Pacific Islands, where there are some of the best coral reefs in the
world." In other words, the plastisphere isn't destroying the ocean ecosystem the creatures
who ride on the plastic are. We're witnessing an ecosystem that is slowly falling off balance.

For now, the open ocean is still mostly inhabited by lantern fish. "There's one lantern fish for every
cubic meter of ocean," Goldstein explained, noting that these fish are probably more common than
the pieces of plastic her team has sampled. But if trends continue, we're going to see more plastic
than fish. And with that plastic will come more invasive species, more water skaters, and more
creatures to eat the water skaters' eggs. The danger is that this could alter the open ocean
forever and destroy all the native life there that has kept the oceans healthy for thousands
of years.

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Affirmative Case 5/ 7

This is not just a problem for species living in the deep ocean. Plastic debris introduces
cancerous chemicals into the food chain which affect every species including humans.


A recent study found that plastics take up and accumulate persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
such as carcinogenic and endocrine-disrupting polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and organochlorine pesticides such as DDD, a derivative of DDT.
Over 50 percent of the plastic samples studied contained PCBs, and over 75 percent contained
PAHs. According to Moore, plastic debris can attract and concentrate POPs up to a million
times their levels in the surrounding seawater, and when consumed by marine animals, the
POPs endanger both the creatures that ingest them and humans higher up on the food chain,
especially infants. Moore has said, No fish monger on Earth can sell you a certified organic
wild-caught fish.

In order to address the problem of trash in our oceans my partner and I offer the following
plan:

The United States federal government should develop a system of passive ocean plastic clean
up arrays as proposed by the Ocean Clean Up Project.
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Contention 3 explains how an ocean clean up would work.
The Ocean Cleanup Array would cost only 2 million dollars and prevent the build up of
plastics in our oceans.

Business Week, 2014
(Caroline Winter, This 19-Year-Old Is Ready to Build an Ocean Cleanup Machine,
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-10/this-19-year-old-is-ready-to-build-an-ocean-
cleanup-machine

The worlds oceans contain millions of tons of trash, much of it collected into vast gyres of
plastic and debris. Even if humanity stopped putting garbage in the water today, researchers
project that these garbage patches would continue growing for hundreds of years. One such
trash vortex, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, already spans hundreds of miles.

How do we get all that garbage out? Boyan Slat, a 19-year-old Dutch aeronautical engineering
student, is raising $2 million to build an ocean cleanup contraption he designed to passively
funnel garbage to specific collection points. Working with a team of over 100 people, he recently
released a 528-page feasibility study (PDF) detailing how the complex technology works and
grappling with questions of legality, costs, environmental impact, and potential pitfalls.

Slats plan, expressed simply, is to deploy several V-shaped floating barriers that would be
moored to the seabed and placed in the path of major ocean currents. The 30-mile-long arms
of the V are designed to catch buoyant garbage and trash floating three meters below the
surface while allowing sea life to pass underneath. Because no nets would be used, a
passive cleanup may well be harmless to the marine ecosystem, he writes in the feasibly
study.

Over time, the trash would flow deeper into the V , from which it would then be extracted. The
report estimates that the plastic collection rate would total 65 cubic meters per day and that
the trash would have to be picked up by ship every 45 days. Slat hopes to offset costs by
recycling the collected plastic for other uses.

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A passive collection system design would work, just needs to be implemented on a broader
scale.

archive/theoceancleanup/press/downloads/TOC_Feasibility_study_lowres.pdf, p. 29)

Proof of concept
A first proof-of-concept test performed at the Azores Islands validated the capture and
concentration potential of a floating barrier with a skirt depth of 3 m, in moderate
environmental conditions. In addition, qualitative data suggested that the barrier does not
catch zooplankton as the net behind the boom appeared to have caught an equal amount of
zooplankton as the net next to the boom.

Inherency
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Answers to: Ocean Clean Up Coming Now
[___]

[___] The worlds largest garbage dump is floating in the middle of the Pacific ocean. Millions
of plastic pieces are being pushed by ocean currents into a trash pile the size of North
America that threatens lives and livelihoods around the world.

Layton, staff writer for Discovery Communications, 2010
(Julia, Could we clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/clean-up-garbage-patch.html, January
7, 2010)

About a thousand miles off the coast of California floats one of mankind's dirtiest little
secrets. Or at least it was a secret before the late '90s, when a seafaring scientist stumbled upon it in
horror. It's a floating dump in the ocean, big enough to hold one or two Texases or maybe all of
North America, depending on who you ask [sources: Stone, Silverman, SSF].

The discrepancy in size estimates may be due to the fact that since most of the trash is below the
surface, the borders are almost impossible to see from above the water. Plus, the trash moves
around with the currents, and there's more than one of these patches. At least one more lies in the
Pacific, and they dot the entire globe. Most often, "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" refers to the one
extending from Hawaii to San Francisco. That patch of trash is supposed to be the biggest,
sporting an impressive 3.5 million tons (3.1 million metric tons) of watery garbage [source: SSF].
And at least 80 percent of it is plastic [source: Berton].

For decades, we've been told plastic doesn't degrade -- that it sits in landfills forever and ever and
therefore it is very, very bad. (Unless you're going to Mexico and need to provide your own water so
you don't get the runs -- then, it's also pretty handy. But still, very, very bad.) The truth is, plastic does
degrade. It just doesn't biodegrade.

Plastic will photodegrade, a process by which it ultimately ends up breaking into countless
tiny bits of the same substance. In a landfill, this may not make a huge difference. But when that
plastic is seaborne, it makes all the difference in the world. And there's the rub: An ever-
increasing amount of the world's ever-increasing amount of plastic refuse is ending up in the
ocean.

In fact, the Pacific Ocean now hosts the largest trash dump on Earth. It's called the Great
Pacific Garbage Patch, and it's not a pretty picture. Waste dumped both on land and at sea
has made its way into a swirling vortex of oceanic trash that threatens sea life, aquatic
ecosystems, fishing industries and the safety of the human seafood supply. In some coastal
areas, a day at the beach is becoming a day at the sandy trash heap.

Inherency
12
Answers to: Ocean Clean Up Coming Now
[___]

[___] Plastic bags, soda bottles and other garbage have been dumped into our oceans for
decades creating a global crisis of trash filled oceans with no end in sight. Ocean waters
filled with plastic will have negative impacts on humans and marine animals alike.

California Coastal Commission, 2014
(Plastic in the Ocean is bad. The Problem With Marine Debris
http://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/marinedebris.htm)

Marine debris is defined as "any manufactured or processed solid waste material that enters
the marine environment from any source." Debris is everywherefound around every major
body of water on the planet, and below water as well. Marine debris is a global pollution
problem that impacts human health and safety, endangers wildlife and aquatic habitats, and
costs local and national economies millions in wasted resources and lost revenues.

HOW DOES TRASH BECOME MARINE DEBRIS? Many people assume that if trash exists in the
ocean, it must be that the fishing and shipping industries are to blame. But in fact, only 20% of the
items found in the ocean can be linked to ocean-based sources, like commercial fishing vessels,
cargo ships (discharge of containers and garbage), or pleasure cruise ships.

The remainder (80%) is due to land-based sources, like litter (from pedestrians, motorists, beach
visitors), industrial discharges (in the form of plastic pellets and powders), and garbage management
(ill-fitting trash can lids, etc).

TRASHING CALIFORNIA'S BEACHES California residents and tourists love our coast and ocean,
making more than 150 million visits to California beaches each year. The effort to keep our shorelines
clear of marine debris comes at a significant cost. A 2012 study determined that 90 west coast
communities spend a total of more than $520,000,000 each year to combat litter.

In 1975, the National Academy of Sciences estimated that ocean-based sources, such as cargo
ships and cruise liners, dumped 14 billion pounds of garbage into the ocean. In 1988, the U.S. signed
onto MARPOL Annex V, joining 64 other countries that signed the international protocol that regulates
ocean dumping and made it illegal to dump plastic into the ocean. Even so, plastic pollution is still
a major problem. A 2001 study found an average of 334,271 pieces of plastic per square mile
in the North Pacific Central Gyre, which serves as a natural eddy system to concentrate material.
And debris in the marine environment means hazards for animals and humans. Plastic marine
debris affects at least 267 species worldwide, including 86 percent of all sea turtle species, 44
percent of all sea bird species, and 43 percent of marine mammal species.

Ocean of Plastic Advantage
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Ocean of Plastic Advantage - Extensions
[___]

[___] Plastics alone kill hundreds of thousands of animals in the earths oceans.


Common items like fishing line, strapping bands and six-pack rings can hamper the mobility
of marine animals and cause injury. Once entangled, animals have trouble eating, breathing or
swimming, all of which can have fatal results. Plastics do not biodegrade and may continue to
trap and kill animals year after year. Marine debris entanglements have been documented for
135 species of animals. An estimated 300,000 cetaceans die each year from entanglement in
fishing gear. (Read summaries of some recent whale entanglements in the Monterey Bay National
Marine Sanctuary.)

Ingestion
Birds, fish and mammals can mistake plastic for food. Debris may cause choking and injuries,
and with plastic filling their stomachs, animals may have a false feeling of being full and may
die of starvation. Sea turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, one of their favorite foods. Even
gray whales have been found dead with plastic bags and sheeting in their stomachs. A recent
study of harbor seals in the Netherlands found that more than 12% had plastic in their digestive
system. 95% of Northern Fulmars studied in the North Sea between 2007 and 2011 were found to
contain plastic, on an average 0.38 grams. This could equal as much as 8.4% of the bird's body
weight.
[___] Plastics kill sea life large and small and the pollution rate is increasing.


But we know the plastic debris on the surface of the ocean is taking its toll on marine life.
Animals get strangled in fishing lines, nets, and plastic litter. Fish and seabirds ingest bits of
plastic they mistake for food that can block their intestinal tracts and kill them, or make them
feel full so that they do not eat real food. One of Moores expeditions collected hundreds of
samples of fish, and conducted necropsies on them: over 1/3 had ingested polluted plastic fragments,
including one 2.5 inch fish that had 84 pieces of plastic in its tiny gut. In 1999, Moores research in
the Central Pacific found six times more plastic than zooplankton in the water. In 2002, off the
coast of Southern California, he discovered the ratio of plastic to plankton was 2.5. Preliminary
results on samples Algalita took in 2008 already show that there is a significant increase in the
ratio of plastic to plankton in the water.

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Answers To: Clean Up Efforts Kill Sea Life
[___]

[___] Bycatch will be minimal. Plankton can float under our system and larger animals will be
deterred by sound systems.


Because they are effectively neutrally buoyant, both phytoplankton and zooplankton are likely
to pass underneath the barriers along with the current. But even assuming the worst - The
Ocean Cleanup Array would harvest all the plankton it encounters - this would constitute a
maximum loss of 10 million kg of planktonic biomass annually. Given the immense primary
production of the world oceans, it would take less than 7 seconds to reproduce this amount of
biomass.

With regard to vertebrates, harm caused by the barriers seems unlikely because non-
permeable barriers are used, although some bycatch may occur in the near vicinity of the
platforms extraction equipment. To prevent the possible impact on vertebrates, active
deterrent techniques could be implemented near the extraction equipment.

[___] The Ocean Cleanup Array floats and does not use nets so sea life can swim around it
while plastics and debris stay in it.

Ian Somerhalder Foundation, 2012
(The Ocean Cleanup Array: An Amazing Environmental Invention,
http://www.isfoundation.com/news/ocean-cleanup-array-amazing-environmental-invention)

The Ocean Cleanup Array would be located at the sites of the five largest trash islandsalso
known as gyreswhich include the Indian Ocean, the North and South Atlantic, and the North
and South Pacific. Slat believes that the ocean current is the biggest advantage to help solving the
garbage problem. As such, "an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms
will span the radius" of each gyre with the "booms acting as giant funnels" to push the debris
in the processing platforms. When the plastic and other debris enters the processing
platform, it would then be filtered from the water and stored in containers until it is picked up
to be recycled on land.

Another very positive aspect of the Ocean Cleanup Array is that absolutely no nets will be used,
so there is no chance of marine life getting harmed. In addition, the booms will only move
along with the ocean current and not any faster, so marine life can also escape the plastic
being pushed towards the processing platforms. To substantiate these claims, Slat is currently
testing his methods as part of the projects feasibility studies.
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Answers To: Clean Up Efforts Kill Plankton
[___]

[___] Downward current of skirt system will minimize bycatch of plankton.

Because the boom skirts are designed to generate a downward current, most phytoplankton is
expected to escape capture by the booms. The fraction of phytoplankton captured in front of
the booms might also be consumed by zooplankton, leading to a (partial) recycling of
nutrients within the ecosystem. However, the phytoplankton that is drawn directly into the
platform by the slurry pump is assumed to be removed from the ecosystem entirely.

[___] Plankton wont get caught in the system.
Slat, founder and lead designer The Ocean Cleanup Project, 2014
(Boyan, Responding to Critics, The Ocean Cleanup,
http://www.theoceancleanup.com/blog/show/item/responding-to-critics.html)

The definition of plankton is an organism that cant swim against a current; plankton have no control
where they go and the assumption that theyll somehow avoid the current that is taking the plastic into
the processing thinga-ma-jiggy is a bad one.
Boyan: Plankton indeed comes from the Greek word Planktos, meaning wanderer or drifter. This is
exactly why they wont get caught. The ocean current passes underneath the floating barriers,
taking all neutrally buoyant sea life (including both phytoplankton and zooplankton) with it,
while positively buoyant plastics remain in front of it. Down to a certain particle size of course,
where the force downward (the current) equals out the force upwards (the buoyancy force of the
plastic). In collaboration with the Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies, we simulated this
hypothesis using Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations (CFD software and code used
were LEMMA ANANAS, Comsol Multiphysics, and ANSYS CFX, if youre interested), which
confirmed our expectations; plastic gets caught, neutrally buoyant organisms do not.
(feasibility study, chapters 3.3 and 3.4). So there is no centrifuging needed; plankton does not
accumulate, while plastic does. But in the hypothetical case that all plankton that passes
underneath these barriers would be damaged, the time it would take to restore that biomass is less
than 7 seconds in a year. And thats the worst-case scenario. (feasibility study, chapter 6)

16
Answers to: Plastics Dont Kill of Species
[___]

[___] Floating plastic islands can introduce invasive species that wreck the local ecosystem
and destroy biodiversity.


Floating marine debris can provide a new and increased method of transport for species
across vast ocean distances, which may cause trouble for biodiversity if the introduced
species prove to be invasive. A 2002 study of 30 remote islands throughout the world showed
that marine debris more than doubled the "rafting" opportunities for species. In 2005 and
2006, surveys of marine debris in the Seychelles Islands showed that on some beaches more
than 60% of debris items carried non-native species.

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Answers to: Food Chain is not protected by clean up
[___]

[___] Our technology would remove microplastics. Passive collection booms will extend 3
meters down to catch most particles and microplastics make up a very small amount of the
pollution.


Perhaps one of the worst assumptions evident in this design is that the plastic will be on the sea
surface. Researchers have shown that plastic suspends in the water column at 100-150 meters due
to wave action and sea state.
Boyan: This is misleading. It is true that the mixed layer can stretch to these depths during winter
months, and its true that very small amounts of plastic can be found throughout the water column,
but as our past 3 expeditions to the gyres have shown, the vast majority of plastics can be found
in the top 1-3 m (depending on wind and sea state). This explains why researchers (as well as
5Gyres themselves) sample the surface layer of the oceans to measure plastic pollution. When
we conservatively look at the data taken in winter months only, the surface layer contained 10x
more microplastics than the layer at 4.5 m of depth. Hence our barriers stretch down to 3
meters, to capture the most of plastic. And in fact, here I am only addressing the small
particles. The large plastics (that make up over 80% of the plastic in the gyres) are all at the sea
surface. (feasibility study, chapter 2.2, 2.3)

[___] Harmful chemicals enter the food chain and can disrupt the endocrine systems of
humans.
Matthews, consultant, eco-entrepreneur, green investor, 2014
(Richard, Plastic Waste in Our Oceans: Problems and Solutions, April 10,
http://globalwarmingisreal.com/2014/04/10/ocean-garbage-problems-solutions/)

According to UNEP, at least 267 species worldwide are impacted by plastic debris in the oceans. As
the plastic disintegrates, it ultimately becomes small enough to be ingested by a wide range of
life forms. Plastics are deadly to a number of species including marine birds and sea turtles.
Various investigations including research by Charles Moore found that in some places the overall
concentration of plastics was seven times greater than the concentration of zooplankton. Plastics
enter the food chain when ingested by aquatic organisms and the impacts go all the way up
the chain to humans.

Researchers have discovered that floating debris can also absorb organic pollutants from
seawater, including PCBs, DDT, and PAHs. When consumed, plastic has both toxic effects
and disruptive impacts on the endocrine system.
Solvency
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Solvency- Funding key
[___]

[___] The technology and communication capability to find and pick up the ocean debris
exists. Additional funding is necessary to tackle the problem.

Maritime Reporter, 2012
(Project to Clean Up North Pacific Garbage Patch, Tuesday, February 21, 2012
http://www.marinelink.com/news/project-pacific-garbage342616.aspx)

Future support
During the past three years, Ocean Voyages Institutes Project Kaisei, has been successful in
studying and documenting what is going on in the Gyre from a scientific perspective. By reviewing
ocean current distribution it has accomplished an encompassing survey of clean-up
possibilities. In addition, the organisation has built a world renowned group of naval
architects, marine engineers and ocean experts that are act as a 'think tank' for designing
marine debris collection equipment. The project is currently working on four types of
equipment which it believes will enable the four major categories of debris to be addressed.
In 2011 our emphasis is surveying coastal areas and coastal Gyres created by rivers, bays and our
other watersheds which are also accumulating debris. There is a great deal of interest in seeing how
much of the debris can be found closer to shore, Crowley said.

While becoming the center for information regarding marine debris collection equipment and
heralding the need for global clean-up efforts, Project Kaisei has also been approached by
various governments for assistance with designing marine debris collection vessels. We
have been approached by various maritime companies who have told us they have the
equipment to accomplish marine debris collections and are working on ways of obtaining
corporate and government investment to conduct the clean-up expeditions on a larger scale
to test the equipment.

Ultimately, the assistance of additional funding will enable us to fulfil the potential of
providing accurate information on the best and most efficient ways of clean-up. Our future
expeditions will be concentrating on continuing science, documentation of the problem,
education and research for major clean-up efforts. Obviously, the ability to communicate remains
fundamental to our success, Crowley said.

Solvency
19
Answers to: Clean Up Fails-Size of the ocean
[___]

[___] Passive technology is scalable. Allows for ocean clean up in all 5 oceans for a limited
cost.


The main advantage of passive cleanup is that it is scalable. Using conventional ship-and-net
methods, it has been estimated that it would take about 79,000 years to remediate the Great
Pacific Garbage Patch (Moore and Philips 2011). And that estimate assumes that vessels cover the
entire oceanic area, and that the plastic pollution is spatially static. While the former assumption is
perhaps naive or unrealistic, the latter is false. Ship-and net methods are less efficient as the high
variability in current directions caused by eddies makes them either repeat their run on the same
patch of the sea or to miss some of the plastics.

In contrast, our concept uses the natural movement of the water to its advantage. In
combination with the circulation period of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, the cleanup
duration could be drastically reduced (a minimum of 5 years).

Due to the passive collection approach, operational expenses can potentially be very low,
making the cleanup more cost-effective. Furthermore, converting the extracted plastic into
energy, oil or new materials could cover (a large part of) the costs of the execution.

Solvency
20
Answers to: Clean Up Fails- Ocean Conditions
[___]

[___] Design elements have been tested and will survive in ocean conditions.

The problem is that the barriers to gyre cleanup are so massive that the vast majority of the scientific
and advocacy community believe its a fools errand
Boyan: We have now engineered a new floating barrier, that can span the 100 km that is
needed to collect almost half the plastic within 10 years. To be sure it stays in one piece, we
used a safety factor of 2.5x to 3x, which is much higher than the offshore standard of 1.82x, to be
able to accommodate the weakening of the materials due to fatigue. (feasibility study, chapter 3.6).
The new design furthermore enables the buoyancy element to move with the waves, which
prevents plastic from splashing over or underneath the boom. This has been confirmed with
scale model tests. These scale models also showed that this new design can potentially
reduce the loads on the tension-carrying element of the barrier by 60%, making our
dimensioning even more conservative.

[___] The collection platform is based off of technology that is already employed worldwide to
withstand ocean conditions.


My home state of Oregon has been trying to create North Americas first offshore wave energy farm.
The first test buoy that was launched, just about 2.5 miles offshore, sank after just a few months. That
buoy had a 100 year survivability rating, and wasnt just an idea on an Ipad.
Boyan: According to the spokesperson of the wave energy test, the object in question was actually
designed to survive only a couple of months. He mentions to Renewable Energy World: So when
people say - Oh there's this device and it sank. How do you expect it to last 20 years or even five
years in a real commercial development? It wasn't designed for that,". In The Ocean Cleanup
concept, there is also a need for a platform. As some may have noticed, the design of this
processing platform has changed from the concept design. We chose for a spar design, which
is proven technology, having been used through decades of ocean engineering. Its specific
design has been made in collaboration with a Belgian engineering company. (feasibility study,
chapter 4.3) The working principles of the system did not change since I presented the concept 1.5
years ago, must be noted.

Solvency
21
Answers to: Clean Up Fails- Sea Life

Bycatch will be minimal. Plankton can float under our system and larger animals will be
deterred by sound systems.


Because they are effectively neutrally buoyant, both phytoplankton and zooplankton are likely
to pass underneath the barriers along with the current. But even assuming the worst - The
Ocean Cleanup Array would harvest all the plankton it encounters - this would constitute a
maximum loss of 10 million kg of planktonic biomass annually. Given the immense primary
production of the world oceans, it would take less than 7 seconds to reproduce this amount of
biomass.

With regard to vertebrates, harm caused by the barriers seems unlikely because non-
permeable barriers are used, although some bycatch may occur in the near vicinity of the
platforms extraction equipment. To prevent the possible impact on vertebrates, active
deterrent techniques could be implemented near the extraction equipment.

Solvency
22
Answers to: Economic Viability
[___]

[___] Multiple options for recycling ocean plastic that do not require sorting by plastic type.
Means ocean clean up can still cover its own costs.


Plastic can only be recycled if its clean ocean () plastics are about the worst possible feedstock for
recycling imaginable
Boyan: Partly true. Of course plastics degrade (oxidise) when exposed to the marine environment for
years to decades. But when we (in collaboration with Universidade de Caxias do Sul) quantified the
oxidation rate of ocean plastic using infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, the quality turned out to be much
higher than expected (feasibility study, chapter 9.1). Because many people wonder what to do with
the plastic once extracted, we included the post-processing into the scope of the report. First we
proved ocean plastic can be turned into oil, and is just as suitable as normal waste plastic. There is a
large market for oil, but the net value is modest. Hence we then also tried mechanical recycling
(both heat pressing and injection moulding), which showed the plastic can actually be turned into
new materials. The only pre-processing was washing; the plastic didnt even have to be sorted
into different polymer types. (feasibility study, chapter 9.2) And even if most damage occurs near
the coasts, with an estimated 1.27 B USD of annual damages in the APEC region, removing almost
half the plastic within the North Pacific Gyre for just 31.7 M euro per year seems like a pretty
good deal, even leaving the value of the plastics aside.
Solvency
23
Answers to: Economic Viability
[____]

[____] Passive collections is the only cost effective option and annual operating costs can be
covered by selling plastic recycled from the project.


The Ocean Cleanup Array is estimated to be 33 times cheaper than conventional cleanup
proposals per extracted mass of plastics. In order to extract 70 million kg (or 42 percent) of
garbage from the North Pacific Gyre over 10 years, we calculated a total cost of 317 million
euro.

In the calculations, a limited lifetime of 10 years is applied instead of a general economic lifetime (for
most equipment 20 years). This is because projections indicate the mean amount of plastic
mass will decrease with time. Thus, the average mass of plastic that will be collected per year
will likely be lower than what has been calculated using the 10-year deployment time. As expected
with the passive cleanup concept, capital expenditures outweigh the operating expenditures.
The total annual estimated operating expenditures is estimated at five million euro.

A break-even cost of 4.53 per kg of plastic collected must be realized in order for The Ocean
Cleanup Array to be profitable. This amount falls in the range of beach cleanup costs, estimated to be
0.07 18.0 per kg. This is also less expensive than the plastic-caused damage to the
maritime industry in the APEC region.

****Cost estimates in the piece of evidence are stated in Euros () the type of money used in
most of Europe. While the value of currencies fluctuate as a general rule 1 Euro is equal to
about $1.33. So operating costs of 5 million a year would be about 6.65 million $ per year.

Plastic Transition Disadvantage Answers
24
Answers to: Experts Agree

[___]

[___] Passive collection method has been tested and supported by experts.


Its a great story, but its just a story. () Gyre cleanup is a false prophet hailing from La-La land that
wont work () Slats project as it stands is in the fairy tale phase
Boyan: We have just published a 530-page report, concluding that The Ocean Cleanup Array is
a feasible and viable method for large-scale gyre cleanup, marking the successful end of the
preliminary engineering phase. Because of its length and diverse nature, a journal wont publish
it. Hence we have asked external experts to do an informal peer review, which the report
passed. Furthermore, part of the report (the plastic processing, the vertical distribution and
computational fluid dynamics) will be separately published in a journal. We are currently
increasing the size of the vertical distribution dataset through new expeditions, in collaboration with
the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research.

25
Answers to: Depth of the Ocean
[___]

[___] Technology exists to moor the ocean clean up system in 4,000 meters of water.


Boyan: In fact, many small moorings have been placed in over 5000 m of depth by
oceanographic institutions like NIOZ and NOAA. The deepest moored oil rig is the Shell Perdido
Spar at 2500 m of depth. The Ocean Cleanup will be placed at 3900 m. So we collaborated with
the market leader in offshore anchoring systems, who came to the conclusion that The tools and
methods that are available to offshore engineering world can readily be applied for the
realization of this project. It is Vryhof Anchors professional opinion that with the current
knowledge and technology, the mooring of the objects at the given water depths is feasible.
The mooring configuration and deployment procedures are similar to proven solutions at 2500
m water depth. (Senol Ozmutlu, PhD). (feasibility study, chapter 3.7)

[___] Outside experts agree the mooring system for the platform would be less complex than
many oil and gas drilling operations.


Keeping the array in position at all times will place substantial demands on a passive mooring
system. At the given water depths, a fiber rope mooring system is the only option to use. To
ensure integrity of the system, chain and wire rope is used at the bottom and top ends.
A Stevmanta Vertical Load Anchor (surface area 14 m) is sufficient to withstand the design
loads including the safety factor.

Although it is a new type of floating concept, the size and weight of the object as well as the
potential risks (environmental as well as commercial) are less severe than the majority of
offshore structures in oil and gas. The tools and methods that are available to offshore
engineering world can readily be applied for the realization of this project. It is Vryhofs
professional opinion that with the current knowledge and technology, the mooring of the
objects at the given water depths is feasible. The mooring configuration and deployment
procedures are similar to proven solutions at 2500 m water depth. The concept is executable
regarding anchor and mooring line installation and load transfer from the tension member to the
seafloor.

Senol Ozmutlu, PhD, Projects Director, Vryhof Anchors
26
Answers to: Depth of Plastics / Sinking Plastic
[___]

[___] Most plastics are found near the surface especially the large plastics which make up
80% of the trash in the gyres.


Perhaps one of the worst assumptions evident in this design is that the plastic will be on the sea
surface. Researchers have shown that plastic suspends in the water column at 100-150 meters due
to wave action and sea state.
Boyan: This is misleading. It is true that the mixed layer can stretch to these depths during winter
months, and its true that very small amounts of plastic can be found throughout the water column,
but as our past 3 expeditions to the gyres have shown, the vast majority of plastics can be found
in the top 1-3 m (depending on wind and sea state). This explains why researchers (as well as
5Gyres themselves) sample the surface layer of the oceans to measure plastic pollution. When
we conservatively look at the data taken in winter months only, the surface layer contained
10x more microplastics than the layer at 4.5 m of depth. Hence our barriers stretch down to 3
meters, to capture the most of plastic. And in fact, here I am only addressing the small
particles. The large plastics (that make up over 80% of the plastic in the gyres) are all at the
sea surface. (feasibility study, chapter 2.2, 2.3)
27
Uniqueness Answers
[___]

[___] Non-unique plastic consumption and production are growing now.

Wilson, Associate Director at The 5 Gyres Institute, 2013
(Stiv,The Fallacy of Cleaning the Gyres of Plastic With a Floating "Ocean Cleanup Array"
, Inhabitat, July 17, http://inhabitat.com/the-fallacy-of-cleaning-the-gyres-of-plastic-with-a-floating-
ocean-cleanup-array/)

Like the size of the ocean, the amount of plastic we consume is an issue of scale. In North
America, the annual per capita consumption of plastic is roughly 326 pounds as of 2010. That
statistic is up nearly a 100 pounds per capita from 2001. Of course, the plastics industry doesnt
like the idea of us consuming less because it means less plastic sold. They keep saying all we need
is more recycling. But despite even nominal gains in recycling, the sum total of virgin plastics
produced in the world annually is going up, not down, which means the sum total of plastics
entering the ocean is going up, too. Im not anti-recycling; recovery is part of the solution, albeit small.

28
Link Answers
[___]

[___] Attention-- Cleanup efforts raise attention to mobilize groups to reduce plastic usage.

archive/theoceancleanup/press/downloads/TOC_Feasibility_study_lowres.pdf, p 39)

Firstly, cleanup concepts have demonstrated the potential to attract attention, including the
concept that is the subject of this feasibility study as introduced in Chapter 1.7 (Slat, 2012). If used
wisely, this attention could not only emphasize the scale and urgency of the plastic pollution
problem, but can also be used to help preventive measures, by stressing the importance of
closing the tap first. And since the cost of preventing and cleaning plastic pollution on land is
likely to be lower than offshore, this could also quantify the financial incentive for improved
pollution control on land.

[___] Visualization ocean clean up efforts allow people to easily see the extent of pollution.


Secondly, a cleanup would be able to make the problem more visible. Although the numbers
(by both mass and particle count) are large, it is hard to visualize, because the debris is
dispersed over a vast area, with concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 10 parts per m (Goldstein et al.,
2013). However, by concentrating and/or extracting a significant percentage of plastic from the
oceans, coverage of this collection process could help in raising awareness about the
problem as well.

[___] Scientific research resulting from building the clean up system would provide better
evidence to convince skeptics about the scope of the issue.


Finally, a cleanup project contributes to the scientific understanding of the oceanic plastic
pollution problem. Both the research in the R&D phases before a cleanup as well as a large-
scale cleanup itself would provide much better insights into the amount and composition of
plastics in the oceans. Most recently for example, it has been recommended reducing the
uncertainties of debris mass estimates by developing large-scale, cost-effective techniques to
monitor subtropical gyre accumulation zones that are millions of square kilometers in size (Law et al.,
2014).
Ban Plastic Bags Counterplan Answers
29
No Solvency- Clean up needed
[___]

[___] Despite efforts like the counterplan to ban plastics, worldwide plastic use will continue
to grow.


The long-term solution for this environmental issue involves decreasing plastic waste and creating
better disposal practices on land and at sea, at an international level. MARPOL 73/78 is the
international convention for the prevention of marine pollution, and prohibits the disposal of plastic
from ships anywhere in the worlds oceans. However, its enforcement varies globally, and clearly this
regulation effects, at most, only 20% of all plastics entering the seas. Other measures to reduce the
detritus of plastics in the environment are ordinances banning plastic single use items such
as plastic bags and polystyrene3.
Despite these efforts, the use of plastic worldwide continues to grow.

30
No Solvency- Other types of plastic
[___]

[___] Many types of plastic in the ocean, the counterplan only prevents a small amount from
making it there. The passive collection system could gather them all.

Maritime Reporter, 2012
(Project to Clean Up North Pacific Garbage Patch, Tuesday, February 21, 2012
http://www.marinelink.com/news/project-pacific-garbage342616.aspx)

Debris Collection Set-up by Ocean Voyages Institute of California in 2008, a California 501(c)3 non-
profit organization, Project Kaisei is the Ocean Clean-up initiative of the Institute, focused on
increasing awareness of the scale of marine debris, its impact on the environment and the
solutions for both prevention and clean-up. The project aims to prevent further accumulation
of marine debris in the ocean and apply new technologies to begin removing this waste.

Project Kaiseis research findings have identified that debris falls into four major categories.
One: Ghost nets/derelict fishing gear,
Two: Floating consumer debris, ranging from car fenders to large plastic storage bins, plastic
bottles and containers of all shapes and sizes,
Three: Smaller plastic debris, ranging from tooth brushes to children's toys to broken down
pieces of plastic, and
Four: Micro plastics.

According to the project team, the four debris categories each present different challenges
for clean-up that require technologies to be created and modified to find the best devices for
extracting these different categories of debris. Having the availability of the satellite
communications link is fundamental to the continued development of this global initiative and gives
clean-up operations the ability to communicate and modify clean-up technologies being tested while
at sea.

31
Permutation : Double Solvency

[___]

[___] The Counterplan presents a false choice. We should not need to decide between
cleaning up or using less but need to do both to save the oceans.


Many initiatives have been set up with the aim of trying to combat plastic pollution (especially
in the past 10-15 years), ranging from prevention to extraction. Although not completely
understood, the currently known sinks of the North Pacific gyre are likely to be small, and a large and
continuous increase in plastic pollution has been measured over time (see Chapter 2). Given the
implications for ecology, economics and human health as explained in Chapter 1.3, a cleanup
would reduce these negative impacts. Based on the counterarguments outlined in 1.4.3 above, the
statement that the solution to the plastic pollution problem should be either prevention or
cleanup is not valid. A cleanup could also benefit preventive efforts as well. Hence, the effect
of a combination of both prevention and cleanup will be greater than either of them alone, and
this combination is the only solutionthat could reduce the amount of plastic pollution in the
oceans within our lifetimes.

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