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Hardly any plastic can be found at the surface of the ocean (1%). It makes much more sense to clean up beaches that have a higher concentration by several magni

Hardly any plastic can be found at the surface of the ocean (1%). It makes much more sense to clean up beaches that have a higher concentration by several magnitudes and a serveral times bigger total amount of plastic (5% of the ocean) Numbers are from http://www.eunomia.co.uk/reports-tools/plastics-in-the-marine-environment/ http://www.eunomia.co.uk/reports-tools/plastics-in-the-marin...

jessriedel 9y ago
> and a serveral times bigger total amount of plastic (5% of the ocean) Looking at your link, you mean "5x the ocean" not "5% the ocean". That link claims the beach plastic density is 2000 times larger, implying that by their definition "beaches" are 2.5km wide on average (since there are 361 M km^2 of ocean and 356,000 km of shoreline).
- legulere 9y ago
  There’s still 94% of the plastic on the ocean floor which is not tackled at all. I don’t get where you have your number of shoreline from. I find numbers threee times yours. Further the report states that the pollution of the ocean surface is less than 1%
  - jessriedel 9y ago
    First result on Google & CIA world Factbook are both about 350,000 km. https://www.quora.com/How-many-miles-of-coastline-are-there-in-the-world https://www.quora.com/How-many-miles-of-coastline-are-there-...
- carlmr 9y ago
  >356,000km of shoreline At what feature size? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox
  - jessriedel 9y ago
    In this case, the appropriate size is of order 2.5 km.
ryanx435 9y ago
So go clean the beaches in your spare time instead of telling the only person cleaning the ocean at scale that they're doing it wrong. At least they're doing something!
205guy 9y ago
I think the point is that floating structures can be more easily designed and automated, whereas beaches and rocky coastlines require man-power and access. Plus nearly all trash on the beach/coast came from the ocean over time.
Already__Taken 9y ago
Doesn't that plastic have to cross the oceans surface in order to reach the beaches or degrade in the sunlight to sink? Wouldn't this be attempting to fix the problem upstream? (literally heh)

jessriedel 9y ago

> and a serveral times bigger total amount of plastic (5% of the ocean) Looking at your link, you mean "5x the ocean" not "5% the ocean". That link claims the beach plastic density is 2000 times larger, implying that by their definition "beaches" are 2.5km wide on average (since there are 361 M km^2 of ocean and 356,000 km of shoreline).

legulere 9y ago
There’s still 94% of the plastic on the ocean floor which is not tackled at all. I don’t get where you have your number of shoreline from. I find numbers threee times yours. Further the report states that the pollution of the ocean surface is less than 1%
- jessriedel 9y ago
  First result on Google & CIA world Factbook are both about 350,000 km. https://www.quora.com/How-many-miles-of-coastline-are-there-in-the-world https://www.quora.com/How-many-miles-of-coastline-are-there-...
carlmr 9y ago
>356,000km of shoreline At what feature size? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox
- jessriedel 9y ago
  In this case, the appropriate size is of order 2.5 km.

ryanx435 9y ago

So go clean the beaches in your spare time instead of telling the only person cleaning the ocean at scale that they're doing it wrong. At least they're doing something!

205guy 9y ago

I think the point is that floating structures can be more easily designed and automated, whereas beaches and rocky coastlines require man-power and access. Plus nearly all trash on the beach/coast came from the ocean over time.

Already__Taken 9y ago

Doesn't that plastic have to cross the oceans surface in order to reach the beaches or degrade in the sunlight to sink? Wouldn't this be attempting to fix the problem upstream? (literally heh)