“The Maritime Waste Disposal”
With its maritime waste disposal initiative, One Earth – One Ocean e.V. (oeoo) has developed a comprehensive and pragmatic concept for the collection and sustainable recycling of marine litter. In doing so, oeoo is presenting a proven solution to one of the biggest global environmental problems. Plastic waste from the sea is a valuable raw material /recyclable.The concept involves collecting, sorting, and processing plastic using special waste collection vehicles in coastal and estuary areas. In addition to pure plastic bales, which can be returned to the recycling cycle, energy and fuel are also to be recovered from the plastic waste at a later stage.
Our maritime waste collection involves two waste collection vehicles of different sizes, the SeeHamster for use in inland waters and the SeeKuh in coastal regions at sea, which in a few years will be fully automated and powered by modern wind and solar technologies to independently collect plastic waste from the water.
In a few years, they will even be able to collect plastic waste from the water autonomously. The plastic waste from the sea is then taken to the waste recycling ship SeeElefant, where it is recycled or processed into sulfur-free fuel oil.
oeoo has conducted a professional feasibility study for the maritime waste collection concept with all its components. oeoo’s cleaning concept focuses primarily on waste hotspots such as river mouths and coastal areas, where pollution concentrations are highest and plastic waste is still relatively unseparated and floats on the surface, often even as a carpet of waste. Here, accessibility, logistics, and energy expenditure of the waste collection are manageable. Examples include the estuaries of the most polluted rivers, such as the Yangtze, Ganges, Brantas, Mekong, and Pasig, as well as the coasts off megacities such as Jakarta, Hong Kong, and Rio.
oeoo’s maritime waste collection concept shows how relatively simple, cost-effective, and proven methods can be used to tackle and actively combat the collection of plastic waste in the oceans, especially in global waste hotspots. Plastic waste could be removed from nature before it is broken down into microplastics or sinks into the depths, damaging the environment for centuries.
People around the world are called upon to finally take active measures to combat the urgent human problem of marine littering.
In 2019, it was nominated for the Federal Ecodesign Award, the highest award for ecological design in Germany.
