> The Ocean Cleanup’s operations demonstrate that the elimination of the GPGP can be done at today’s level of performance in 10 years at a cost of $7.5bn > Dat

> The Ocean Cleanup’s operations demonstrate that the elimination of the GPGP can be done at today’s level of performance in 10 years at a cost of $7.5bn > Data and modelling indicate that the removal of the GPGP could be achieved in 5 years at a cost of $4bn 10 years at $7.5bn or 5 years at $4bn? I'll take 2.5 years at $2.5bn. That kind of tells me that there are enormous labour costs. What I really want to know is what they are doing with it once collected. > Ocean plastic pollution is one of the most urgent problems our oceans face today, costing the world up to $2.5 trillion per year in damage to economies, industries, and the environment I'd like to see a breakdown of that. My suspicion is that this random floating patch of rubbish hardly affects economies or industries at all. > To put the cost of clean oceans in context, the annual spend in the US on Halloween decorations is $10.6bn USD; US pet food spending in 2024 was $66.9bn USD; the combined net worth of the top 10 richest people is $1.66tn USD, and 1% of the annual net profits of the world’s plastic producers is $7.2bn USD. What has the predicted worth (that is mostly non-liquid) of the top 10 richest people got to do with anything? I did think "why not just scoop it up into a retrofitted ship and take it away?". The following seems interesting [1]: > Despite the common public perception of the patch existing as giant islands of floating garbage, its low density (4 particles per cubic metre (3.1/cu yd)) prevents detection by satellite imagery, or even by casual boaters or divers in the area. This is because the patch is a widely dispersed area consisting primarily of suspended "fingernail-sized or smaller"—often microscopic—particles in the upper water column known as microplastics. Sounds like a fun problem. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch