海洋清理任务瞄准河流

海洋清理任务瞄准河流

The group behind the mission to rid our oceans of plastic has opened a second front in the war by pulling plastic from the world's most polluted waterways before it gets to the ocean.

负责海洋塑料清理任务的组织开辟了战争的第二条战线，他们从世界上污染最严重的水道中提取塑料，然后把它们运到海洋。

Interceptor 002 has been deployed in the Klang River in Selangor, Malaysia. (Photo: Ocean Cleanup)

The Ocean Cleanup team unveiled a group of Interceptors, which are currently in operation on two rivers in Malaysia and Indonesia. By their estimate, roughly 80% of the world's plastic reaches the ocean through 1,000 rivers. The goal is to clean up those rivers by 2025, pulling in roughly 50,000 kilograms of plastic a day with each river Interceptor.

海洋清理小组公布了一组拦截器，目前在马来西亚和印度尼西亚的两条河流上运行。据他们估计，全球约80%的塑料通过1000条河流流入海洋。他们的目标是在2025年之前清理这些河流，通过每条河流的截流器，每天可回收大约5万公斤的塑料。

The ocean element is back on track

海洋元素又回到了正轨

The system uses long floating barriers and acts like an artificial coastline. (Photo: The Ocean Cleanup)

"Our ocean cleanup system is now finally catching plastic, from one-ton ghost nets to tiny microplastics! Also, anyone missing a wheel?" announced Slat. It was a buoyant moment for a project that has had its ups and downs.

“我们的海洋清理系统现在终于开始捕捉塑料了，从一吨重的幽灵网到微小的塑料微粒!”还有，有人丢了轮子吗?”对于一个经历了跌宕起伏的项目来说，这是一个令人振奋的时刻。

Plastic successfully retained by the system in October 2019. (Photo: The Ocean Cleanup)

Slat became the poster boy for entrepreneurship when he quit university and launched the project at 18. He had come up with the idea after diving in Greece as a teenager, recognizing the scope of the problem — and coming up with a potential solution. He has been the face of the project ever since, through good times and bad.

斯拉特大学辍学，18岁时启动了这个项目，成为了创业的典范。他是在十几岁时在希腊潜水时想到这个主意的，当时他意识到问题的严重性，并提出了一个可能的解决方案。从那以后，他一直是这个项目的负责人，经历了风风雨雨。

The Ocean Cleanup was redeployed in June after spending four months in the shop and has been in testing mode for the last few months. The second deployment was a quieter affair than the first, when the much-lauded cleanup system began trolling the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to collect plastic waste. However, the Ocean Cleanup was forced to return to port in Hawaii just a few months after being launched because the passive floating system was catching plastic, but it wasn't necessarily retaining it and an 18-meter end section had broken away from the main frame.

海洋清理任务四个月后，于今年6月重新部署，过去几个月一直处于测试模式。第二次部署比第一次更安静，当时备受称赞的清理系统开始在大太平洋垃圾带(Great Pacific Garbage Patch)上收集塑料垃圾。然而，“海洋清理”被迫在下水后几个月返回夏威夷港，因为被动漂浮系统正在捕捉塑料，但不一定能留住塑料，而且一个18米长的末端部分已经从主体框架上断裂。

Undeterred by their critics, the team behind the Ocean Cleanup said the mishap was all part of the process.

海洋清理工作的团队并没有被批评者吓倒，他们表示，这次事故是整个过程的一部分。

Learning from mistakes

从错误中学习

Crew members sort plastic from the first successful haul and sort it into types. (Photo: The Ocean Cleanup)

The bumps and ongoing adjustments are part of the process. In fact, it was the problem that sent them back to port in December that helped them solve a deeper issue. The offshore crew noticed on Dec. 29 that the section was detached and after some debate, determined that the boom must return to port because both end sections contained sensors and satellite communication had been compromised.

颠簸和正在进行的调整是这个过程的一部分。事实上，正是这个问题让他们在12月回到了港口，帮助他们解决了一个更深层次的问题。12月29日，海上作业人员注意到，这一段是分离的，经过一番辩论后，他们断定，吊杆必须回到港口，因为两端的吊杆都包含传感器，卫星通讯也受到了破坏。

One reason the system didn't work as hoped has to do with speed. To catch the plastic, the system typically has to move faster — or in some cases, slower — than the plastic it's hoping to catch, Slat said. The fix put in place — one inspired by sailing — ensured that the the system will not travel at the same speed as the plastic.

该系统未能如愿运行的原因之一与速度有关。斯拉特说，为了捕捉塑料，该系统通常必须比它希望捕捉的塑料移动得更快，有时甚至更慢。修复到位——灵感来自航海——确保了系统不会以与塑料相同的速度运行。