Can the garbage patch be recycled?
By Don Loepp on August 10, 2009 3:03 PM ET We’re in the heart of “voyage to the garbage patch” season now, with a couple of missions finally underway aimed at studying the plastic soup in the Pacific Ocean that has become a focus of attention for the global marine debris problem.One effort, called Project Kaisei, is aimed in part at determining “how to capture the debris and to study the possible retrieval and processing techniques that could be potentially employed to detoxify and recycle these materials into diesel fuel.” The Kasei team has been blogging about its trip, and a recent post notes an emphasis on investigating whether the plastic debris can be recycled.Since one of the mission’s objectives is recycling, we welcomed a donation from the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR); one of two principal donors of the project. Recycling marine debris would contribute to both cleaning up the ocean and delivering even more recycled resources. We look forward to workin
