David Levy – A Real Answer to a Global Problem – May 19

When I heard the Ocean Clean-up Project I sat back in stupefied silence wondering whether the World really had gone mad.

This is a Dutch enterprise to corral the ocean’s plastic islands onto a freighter, haul the plastic half way around the world back to the Netherlands and dispose of it there. In the wings, I heard environmentalists applauding the concept and offering to throw money at the scheme.

Now that the pilot project of this insane concept is proceeding, I was reflecting on a visit I had made to Swindon where a small scale pyrolysis plant is converting all grades of non-recyclable plastics back into oils and waxes for commercial use.

At the same moment I thought about my ex MP Dr Andrew Murrison who sits on committees on the Royal Navy where he is a reservist doctor. Andrew could engage the Royal Navy to oversee a project of sea borne pyrolysis (a small scale pyrolysis plant installed within a navy vessel) to dispose of waste plastics at sea (as fuel for the Navy and other vessels) and, by extrapolation, extend this project to these environmental plastic islands and so rid the world of a major nightmare.

It would only take the meeting of minds with government backing for a project that would have major benefits for defence retrofits of NATO ships, and so embrace a technology that has real applications for the onboard production of fuels and service waxes.

In short, a circular solution which would also establish a number of such small plants at sea ports around the world for countries and their marine communities to use in the disposal of their plastic netting and rubbish which currently ends up in the sea.

Now that’s something to invest money into.

David Levy

 


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