Video at: KItv.com
A 2,000 foot floating device launched in September to scoop-up plastic in the ocean, is in Hilo Harbor for repairs.
The ambitious project to clean up some of the 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the “Great Garbage Patch” fell short after the U-shaped barrier broke just before the new year.
“About 40 feet of the 2,000 feet was observed to be drifting away,” said Joost Dubois, spokesperson with the Ocean Cleanup.
The system, then towed 800 nautical miles to Hilo Harbor on Thursday for repairs.
The spokesman for the project says repairs may take a couple of months, and it’s unclear at this time whether repairs will be made in Hawaii or in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Regardless of where it’s fixed, Dubois is confident in repairing the system and improving it’s speed.
“We’re trying to engage with the local community and use local knowledge. That will all be used to finally make up our mind where we’re going to stay,” said Dubois.
Francisco Pacarro is the Founder of environmental group Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii. He says he appreciates the organization’s goal, but isn’t surprised that the multimillion dollar effort isn’t working.
“From the beginning, we never thought that this was a good solution,” explained Pacarro.
Pacarro says that money could have gone elsewhere to better help with the pollution problem.
“I really think that at some point in the future it could represent a good solution, but I don’t think right now is the time. We should really be focusing our energy and our money where the problem is. That’s in our corporations, overuse of plastics and us as consumers using too much plastic,” said Pacarro.