On November 14, we listened to a lecture by Helen Wolter. Wolter is a laboratory- and field researcher at The Ocean Cleanup. Her efforts at The Ocean Cleanup relate to the cleaning up of plastics in the oceans, especially floating plastic. This is a huge task, indeed the biggest cleanup ever! Currently, Wolter is working on a chemical method to date plastic waste in order to develop an index to predict the degradation time of plastic. On average, the time to decompose in the ocean is 50 years.
During the lecture, the pursuits of Wolter and The Ocean Cleanup were highlighted through the use of a quiz. A proposition was raised, with four possible answers. The correct answer was usually also the most perplexing fact. For example, the total area of plastic waste in the global oceans is increasing by twice the area of the state of Texas per year! Moreover, there appeared to be many critical comments about a label such as “biodegradable plastic. This turns out to be false in many cases. The degradation time of various plastics with this label is in many cases as long as regular plastics. This is because the label does not specify under what conditions the plastic is biodegradable; usually these are unrealistic conditions.
The lecture by Helen Wolter of The Ocean Cleanup, provided by Veronica, Jasper and Frida, showed new perspectives on plastic pollution and its cleanup.
This article was written by Tiemko Jenniskens, Da Vinci Project 2024-2025 student