DESIGN THINKING & INNOVATION

Group Project:

OCEAN CLEAN
“Cleaning the plastics that harm our oceans”

Group 14

2210120076 HARIHARAN OS
2210120059 SRIVATSAVA KS
2210120063 SAI VENKATESH V
2210120072 RUCHI SHIKHA
2210120057 SRI JAYANTHI A
2210120065 VENKAT NAG K
INTRODUCTION:
In the current fast-pacing society, the world community consists of many profit-
oriented organizations that prevail in the market. However, after years of
industrialization and technological development for our comfort, we as humans need to
look after ourselves and the planet that we live on and call our home. Many natural
disasters are caused due to ignorant actions of humans and can be prevented by taking
steps toward changing them. One such major environmental phenomenon is the death
of marine life species, which is occurring due to ocean plastic pollution and it is time
that we collectively take precautions to remove this problem and prevent this from
happening to give our future generations not only advanced technologies but also a
clean environment to live in.

OBSERVATION & INSIGHTS:

We as humans live on this planet that is covered 70% with oceans. We constitute 0.01%
of the species population of the world, but marine life consists of almost 10 million
species covering over 65% of the species population on this planet.

Activities: We are polluting over 40% of the ocean surfaces with the plastic we
produce and use.

Environments: More than 8 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans each year and
make up 80% of all litter in our oceans comes from inland. The entry points for this
plastic waste are rivers and sewage canals which go through the cities and towns and
mix into the ocean. Due to this river convergence, a large amount of plastic waste is
being dragged from unknown sources before going into the ocean. These flowing
plastics not only effect the oceans but also the river water, river banks, irrigation water
which are sources of drinking water for many inland residents.

Interactions: This plastic pollution harms 40 - 44% of Marine and seabird species.
38% of the world population consumes sea/ocean food - with plastic pollution the
marine population is declining at an alarming rate due to fish and other species
consuming the plastic that is disposed of in the waters. Marine phytoplankton produces
50% of the oxygen on earth - due to the toxins released into the seas by the plastics
mixing into the ocean minerals and salts, the marine plants are degrading and are
producing more toxic gases that are released into the oceans and killing millions of
marine lives.
Objects: The main pollutants are microplastic particles that are in the trillions which
threaten the lives of marine wildlife. Other than these, daily use plastics such as
polythene bags, plastic bottles, cups, etc are commonly disposed in sewages which find
their way into the oceans. Another major pollutant is discarded or abandoned fishing
gears that often trap fishes, turtles and marine mammals.

Users: Due to the decrease in marine biodiversity, the delicate balance of the
ecosystem is destroyed, causing climatic changes, loss of agriculture and cultivation,
environmental changes which will lead to major health problems for us humans, and,
since 40% of the drugs prescribed by doctors rely on ingredients from organisms found
in nature, we also lose valuable medicines.

In other words, by increasing the ocean’s plastic pollution, we are destroying our
livelihoods without even realizing the consequences our future generations will face.

Our problem statement is: How to clean the plastic from oceans and prevent it from
happening? From there we have reframed our question: “How is the plastic even
entering the ocean?” and with the help of webbing technique we have framed and
reframed our problem statements:

Frame/re-Frame:
Framing of the problem statements:
 How is plastic entering into the oceans?
 What % of sea/ocean pollution is made-up of plastic?
 Is it even possible to clean the ocean with its vast spread?
 What is the cost involved in cleaning the ocean plastic?
 What is the most effective way for it to permanently stopped?
 Is there any opportunity to temporarily stop it or temporarily clean it while
looking for a permanent solution?
 How should the plastic waste be separated from other waste from the water?
 Can the plastic extracted be recycled to produce useful products?

What should be done?

i. Plastic production must be reduced
ii. Plastic usage should be reduced
iii. Plastic wastage should be reduced
iv. Plastic recycling should be increased and awareness of plastic reuse should be
advertised
v. Cleaning of Plastic from all water forms should be taken up by governments
and world corporations and must be implemented efficiently
vi. Plastic pollution in water must be stopped from the source, i.e. rivers & river
banks, sea & ocean shores, sewages etc
vii. Plastic extracted from water should be recycled efficiently and reused in a way
that it does not find its way back to the oceans or rivers
viii. People living in the coastal areas should be educated and instructed not to
pollute the water forms and have to be provided with appropriate waste disposal
methods

Fortunately, only 13 to 15% of the oceans are polluted and 40% of the pollution is on
the surface as stated in the observation but this is killing 40 to 44% of marine and
seabird species are going extinct. However, the problem case when we questioned what
% of sea/ocean pollution is made up of plastic and that 80% and most of the plastic is
coming from rivers and other water sources. Upon further research, it is observed that
along with 8 million tonnes of plastic entering every year, the oceans already contain
500 million tonnes of microplastic is existing in the oceans. With this amount of plastic,
our questions turned towards, what is the cost involved in cleaning this plastic, and
what should be done to the plastic that is extracted? Can the plastic extracted be
recycled to produce useful products?
Plastic extracted from water should be recycled efficiently and reused in a way that it
does not find its way back to the oceans or rivers
IDEATION

Our oceans are becoming more and more polluted every day. The ocean is swimming
in plastic and it’s getting worse. The amount of plastics in the oceans will soon
outnumber the population of fish. Scientists predict that by the year 2025, there will be
1 ton of plastic for every 3 tons of fish. Ocean pollution has a devastating impact on
marine life and the ecosystem. The scale of the number of plastics entering our oceans
and rivers is so vast that small-scale removal programs are not able to make any
difference. Marine plastic pollution has a negative ecological, social, and economic
impact. So far, few solutions are available to stop river plastic and are designed only
for a few locations. The solutions are required to sustain the quality of global oceans.

According to a study conducted by our non-profit organization, Ocean Cleanup, the

majority of plastic in oceans comes from only about 1000 rivers, accounting for only
1% of the number of rivers worldwide. We have to clean the plastic that is already
present in the oceans and also stop new plastic from entering the oceans. Our specialists
have been trying to solve this issue for decades and the ocean cleanup has finally come
up with the potential solution ‘the interceptor’. It is the world’s first scalable solution
to prevent river plastic from entering the ocean.

By using the SIT tool of ‘Task Unification’ we can unify more tasks in this single
product, which is ‘Ocean Cleanup Interceptor’.
 It is cleaning the ocean by collecting the plastic waste.
 By doing this it is protecting the protecting the marine life and reducing the
plastic pollution.
 It is the solution to the environmental problems.
Concept development:
“Catch, rinse, recycle and repeat - until the oceans are clean.”

Cleaning the Oceans:

The concept is to develop a passive cleanup method, which uses the natural
oceanic forces to rapidly collect the plastic that is already in the oceans, using its own
currents. The Array utilizes long floating barriers which —being at an angle— capture
and concentrate the plastic, making mechanical extraction possible. One of the main
advantages of this passive clean-up concept is that it is scalable.
The circulating currents in the garbage patch move the plastic around, creating natural
ever-shifting hotspots of higher concentration.
Furthermore, converting the extracted plastic into either energy, oil or new materials
could partly cover execution costs. Because no nets would be used, a passive clean-up
may well be harmless to the marine ecosystem and could potentially catch particles that
are much smaller than what nets could capture.

Solution to the Environmental Problems:

Even if we manage to prevent any more plastic from entering the oceans, the natural
loss of plastic from the gyres is slow and likely low; therefore, a clean-up is still
necessary. Since the problem gained widespread attention at the beginning of this
century, several clean-up concepts have been proposed, each based on vessels with nets
– essentially, fishing for plastic. Unfortunately, even though the concentration of plastic
in gyres is very high compared to the rest of the oceans, plastic is still spread over
millions of square kilometers. Hence, it would likely take money in billions and many
years to clean up such an area using those methods. By-catch and emissions would
likely be problematic using this approach.

We may use Interceptor, which is an autonomous vessel which can remove 50,000
kilograms of trash each day. To accomplish this task, it uses floating barriers that catch
waste and guides it towards an opening. The currents then move the debris into a
conveyor belt which extracts it from the water and delivers it to a shuttle which
distributes the debris across dumpsters. Using sensor data, the containers are filled
equally until they reach full capacity. It is a necessary step for us to tackle the global
flow of plastic pollution to our oceans at scale.
Protecting the Marine Life:

Since the ocean Cleanup and the river cleaning interceptor uses a barrier to collect the
buoyant plastic on the ocean surface, the marine life is not disturbed and can move
underneath the barrier. Because no nets would be used, a passive clean-up may well be
harmless to the marine ecosystem and could potentially catch particles that are much
smaller than what nets could capture.

Rapid Prototyping:
The team at Ocean Cleanup have come up with Rapid Prototyping introducing their
first prototype of Ocean Cleanup by the name: First North Sea Prototype and for River
cleaning the solar powered Interceptor.
Ocean Clean-up Prototype 1:

Our first prototype of the Ocean Cleaning model was executed in 2016 and gave
valuable insights to our engineering team. Our objective was to investigate the
durability of our design in extreme conditions and our prototype have helped develop
better mechanisms to perform effectively. There was a substantial change in the design
since the first North Sea Prototype with most noticeable one being the change from a
moored system to a free-floating system.

The First Interceptor Prototype:

The Ocean Clean-up’s initial river clean-up system, was designed and built in 2017.The
testing observations was the aspect or extraction of all manner and size of debris from
the water, monitoring the flow of water and thereby route of the debris to understand
possible blockages could occur and capability of the conveyor to manage the various
sizes of debris. The goal of the project was always to learn as much as we could from
operating in a highly polluted environment.
IMPLEMENTATION:

HOW IT WORKS

TARGET

The circulating currents in the garbage patch move the plastic around, creating natural
ever-shifting hotspots of higher concentration. With the help of computational
modeling, we predict where these hotspots are and place the cleanup systems in these
areas.

CAPTURE

By maintaining a relative speed difference to the plastic, the plastic can be caught in
the retention zone of the cleanup system. The wingspan, speed and direction are
corrected and maintained by the vessels.

EXTRACTION

Once the system is full, the back of the retention zone is taken aboard, sealed off,
detached from the system, and emptied on board the vessel. The retention zone is then
put back in place and the cleanup continues.

RECYCLING

Once our containers are full of plastic onboard, we bring them back to shore for
recycling. For each system batch, we plan on making durable and valuable products.
Supporters getting the products will help fund the continued ocean cleanup.
TURNING A PROBLEM INTO A SOLUTION

We’ve used (and recycled) plastic for more than just the frames: the sunglasses’ case is
made from the HDPE floater of System 001 (or as you may know it, Wilson), our first
ocean cleanup system, and the carrying pouch is made from recycled PET bottles. Just
like the sunglasses, we hope the case and pouch will be treasured as something special,
and therefore, less likely to end up in our ecosystems.

Plastic pollution in the world’s oceans is one of the biggest environmental issues of our
time. By transforming used plastic into something with value, we can turn this global
problem into a shared solution – a solution that can be an example of how plastic can
be used and, when used responsibly, how it can be a great material.

References:

1. TOC_Feasibility_study_executive_summary_V2_0

2. foundation-factsheet-the-ocean-cleanup-valorisation-en

3. BoyanSlat_Founder&CEO____TheOceanCleanup

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ocean_Cleanup

5. https://theoceancleanup.com/about/

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROW9F-c0kIQ