Pacific Garbage Screening - how architecture could save our oceans | Marcella Hansch | TEDxDresden

Is there anything we can do about the huge and increasing amount of plastic garbage in our oceans? The non-profit project Pacific Garbage Screening offers a visionary concept for this challenge. The basis of their idea is a platform floating on the water. Its special construction allows to filter plastic particles by inverted sedimentation. Nets or other filter systems, which could endanger ocean life, are not necessary. Furthermore, the floating plastic waste is converted into energy and biodegradable plastics. Marcella Hansch is an architect and founder of the green non-profit start-up Pacific Garbage Screening e.V.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

This is me,

but, actually, a younger version of me,
around four years ago.

I was studying architecture.

Yeah, I was that small four years ago.

I was studying architecture,

and I didn't think
about the future too much,

enjoying life, travelling around a lot,

and I really loved being
in the mountains, hiking and stuff,

and also loved being at the sea,
and I still love it.

And I really do love diving.

There is just a little problem

because I do have a diving license,
and I really enjoy being underwater,

but I'm afraid of fishes.

(Laughter)

It's a truth, and, actually,

I did this diving license
and the lessons to get rid of the fear.

But sometimes it works, sometimes not.

Four years ago,
in the last year of my studies,

I went diving with a friend,
and it was a beautiful dive.

All these little fellows; I watched them;
they were quite far away.

So everything was good;
it was a comfortable dive.

And suddenly, something
was touching my feet.

And I was completely shocked
and thought, "Oh my God,

that's a huge big shark trying to eat me."

But, of course, it was not a shark;
it was, actually, just a plastic bag.

And I was confused because I thought,
"Why is there plastic inside the water?"

I didn't know what to do,
and I watched around,

and, actually, there was more plastic
around me than fishes!

Little pieces, little bottles,
stuff like that.

I was a little bit frightened.

I went back home and couldn't stop
thinking about this topic.

I always had this plastic bags in my mind.

Even though it was not dangerous for me
because it was not a shark,

it's dangerous for
all these little fellows.

And I did a lot of research
and tried to get more information

because a couple of years ago it was not
that much in the news as it is today.

So I got a lot of information
while doing research.

It's a huge problem.

Every year, 6.5 million tons of plastic

are getting into our oceans
by rivers and stuff like that.

If you count that,
it's like 730 tons an hour,

which are just, like in the picture,
getting into the water,

which is quite shocking and threatening.

The worst thing is that all the fishes,
all these little, nice fellows,

are eating the plastic,
and it's getting into their muscles,

changing their DNA, and, finally,
even we are eating the plastic.

Because we, the humans,
are at the end of the food chain,

and when we eat fishes,

we also eat the plastic,
which is not that cool.

And we don't like it.

So the main question I asked myself:
"Why is there no solution?"

I mean, we are intelligent people,

and there should be a solution for that.

The answer for this question
is quite simple:

because it's really, really difficult.

There is not just the huge plastic bags
floating in the water

but also little pieces.

Because all these bags and plastic bottles

are breaking down
to little, little pieces.

And you cannot just take
a net and collect them

because if you do that,
you'd collect all the fishes,

all the plankton, all the sea creatures.

And that doesn't make any sense, actually.

So I tried to think about what we can do.

How can we get it out of the water?

I'm not the first person
thinking about how to clean the water.

Normally, you get sewage plants,
and how do they work?

The main part of a sewage plant
is a huge basin;

it's called sedimentation basin.

The water is getting inside,
getting calmed down,

and the sediment is going to the ground,
and the clean water is just going further.

And if you take this principle,
you just have to turn it upside down.

Because in the oceans,

these little particles are accumulating
in so called ocean gyres -

it's because of the currents
around the world -

and this plastic is not floating
on the surface but in the first 40 meters.

And if you could find a solution
to calm down the oceans in special points,

then plastic, which has a lower density
than water, can go up to the surface.

And as I am an architect,
I tried something with architecture.

So I built a platform
which is 400 meters wide, quite big,

which is floating, positioned
and anchoring inside these ocean gyres,

and there is a canal system
underneath the surface.

So it's going down to 40 meters,

where the covering of
the plastic particles is the highest,

and the water is going
inside this canal system

and, because of the form,
the water is getting calmed down.

And all these little plastic particles
can go up with their own density

because there are no currents, no winds,
nothing which turns it around and around.

You can go with a natural draft
up to the surface.

And this is it.

This is actually this huge platform,

looking a little bit like a spaceship,
not going to Mars, actually.

The water is going inside,
and because of this form,

it's getting calmed down.

And at the end of the platform,
all the plastic is coming to the surface

so we can just skim it from the surface

and don't need any nets, filter systems,
or complicated stuff like that.

And all the little fellows,
the fishes and the sea creatures,

they can just pass through.

So there is no net, nothing to stop them.

And the next "great" question was,

"What to do with the ocean plastic?"

Because actually, it's not waste.

Waste, you can just burn it,

but the ocean plastic
is actually a huge resource,

and I think we should use it.

So my idea, as I'm an architect,
no chemist or biologist,

my idea was to gasify it.

Because when you gasify it,

you get a synthetic gas out of it,
which is made of hydrogen and CO2.

The hydrogen, you can put
into burning cells

so you get energy
to get the platform running.

The CO2, you can put into algae cultures,

and there's one special species -

I am not a biologist,
but I did a lot of research -

and there's one species,
when you put sulfur out of it,

while growing, it's producing hydrogen,
not oxygen, like normally.

So you get even more energy
to get the platform running.

And if you take the biomass of the algaes,
you can make new algae plastics out of it.

So, finally, you get more or less a cycle:

you put the old plastic out of the water,
get energy and new plastic

which is biodegradable
and doesn't harm the ocean anymore.

So this was it. This was actually
my Master's thesis in architecture.

Nothing to do that much
with architecture in the end,

just how it looks like.

And I called it
"Pacific Garbage Screening."

"Pacific" because of
the North Pacific Garbage Patch.

That's the biggest of the ocean gyres.

Normally, with the Master's thesis,

you get your degree,
happy, life can start.

(Laughter)

The normal way is, you take it,
put it in a box, forget about it.

That's the normal way,
but somehow that didn't happen.

There were a lot of people talking to me,

saying, "Hey, cool idea! That's great.
Do you think about if it's feasible?

Did you ever do
a calculation or whatever?"

I was like, "Yeah, I'm an architect,

(Laughter)

I cannot count that or do a calculation."

So I started to talk to people,

and I started to ask questions.

"Who can help me?" "How can we prove it?"

'We need a calculation. Who can help me?"

And finally, "Let's do something
because probably the idea isn't that bad."

So I really found some people,
engineers at the university,

and the main question was,
"Does the concept work?"

And they did a calculation, not me,

and the first results were like,
"Yes, it could work!"

And I was quite happy: "Cool, little
architecture student had a great idea,

and finally, it's probably working."

So we decided to go on with the idea,
to go on with the proof.

I got a team.

And our team is, in these days,
really growing and growing.

And in the beginning of the year,
we decided to found an NGO,

and the NGO is called
"Pacific Garbage Screening."

And we are a young, motivated team,

we are all volunteers
working on this topic,

and we want to do something,
and we want to build it.

Our intention is not
to get money for that,

because there is not
a business plan behind this idea.

First of all, it's caring about our planet
and to do something

because, actually, I like this planet,
and I don't want to move to another one,

where I have to put a goldfish bowl
on my head every time I leave the door.

And I would like even my kids, sometime,

to live on this planet and not on another.

So what we want to do
is to build a feasible technology.

It doesn't make any sense
to build this spaceship,

probably in a couple of years,
then I'm quite happy.

But the first thing
is to build a prototype.

So we want to build little models,
to put into rivers or river mouths

so we can collect the plastic
before it's entering the oceans,

being more effective and collecting it
before it's harming the oceans.

That's what we are working on right now.

We're trying to get
research funds for that

and trying to get a model
to put into a canal and to test it.

And our motivation
is to stay on this planet

and to keep this planet alive.

Because the chance
to go to another planet -

it's possible, probably,
in a couple of years,

but there are no rivers,
no forests, no nothing.

All the things I love when I do traveling,
they are not on Mars.

So our intention is,
we want to save our oceans,

and, finally, we want to save
our very, very beautiful planet.

Thank you.

(Applause)