Honorable Mention
2014 Skyscraper Competition
Globally, millions of tons
of trash enter the ocean each year. Between 60 and 80 percent of it is
land-based and the rest is from ocean-based operations. Due to ocean currents,
this plastic waste collects in particular areas of our global ocean. Such a
region of accumulated plastic debris is the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre,
where the prevailing ocean currents have created a large mass of tiny particles
of plastics, which have resulted in a “plastic soup” commonly referred as the
Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). GPGP is twice the size of Texas and
contains six times more plastic than plankton biomass. As plastic does not
biodegrade, it poses a threat to thousands of marine animals.
Seawer proposes to install
a huge drainage hole 550 meters in diameter and 300 meters in depth in the
middle of the GPGP. The project would engulf all kinds of floating trash filled
with seawater. Seawer consists of five layers of baleen filters, which separate
particles and fluids. The plastic particles collected from filters are taken to
a recycling plant atop of the structure while seawater is filtered and stored
in a large sedimentation tank at the bottom to be further cleaned and released
into the ocean.