The next step according to Wilson is to get involved in cleanups such as beach cleanups and so forth, get involved in campaigns to eliminate products that produce the problem, and demand that companies take responsibility for the issue.
While the notion of actually going out and cleaning up the plastic out of the ocean may be a lot more complicated than the Ocean Cleanup Array proposal suggests, Wilson's solution to the issue is rather simplistic as well. For years environmentalists have been trying to get companies to be responsible for their actions and to get consumers to use biodegradable containers and yet there does not seem to be any end to the increasing number of plastic products that are produced all over the world. Moreover, Wilson cites issues with the Ocean Cleanup Array as not being feasible to the vast size of the oceans; however, one could also state that his idea to organize massive beach cleanups us unrealistic as well. Where are will all these crews come from? Are people to be paid for this? Do you use volunteers? Where do these start? Who organizes them? Wilson's notion of the development of massive beach cleanup programs can be criticized in the same way as he criticizes the Ocean Cleanup Array proposal in terms of his aspirations and faith in the ability organize such massive scale programs being much bigger than the practicality of such endeavors.
Moreover, this reader found Wilson's skepticism a bit too overarching; Wilson would most likely be skeptical of any program that would attempt to clean up the massive amounts of plastic garbage already...
He does not really give a time frame as to how long the Gyre Memory effect will take to rid the oceans of a significant amount of plastic; however, the Ocean Cleanup Array proposal claims that a good deal of the plastic could be cleaned out of the ocean within five years. At least that is a target estimate.
It seems to this writer that the real solution is not to be passive about the plastic that is already in the ocean as Wilson is or not to only rely on cleaning up the ocean as the Ocean Cleanup Array proposal suggests. It is very obvious that this is a serious issue and that action needs to be taken on both ends of the spectrum. Wilson's idea of actually getting involved on the consumer and production end is certainly feasible and something needs to be done, but just sitting around passively waiting for all the plastic that is in the ocean to wash up on shore is simply a form of non-action. Likewise, the Ocean Cleanup Array proposal suggests action and even if it is unfeasible there certainly needs to be some direct action to clean up the oceans. It seems of this writer that the solution is to attack the problem from both angles instead of simply concentrating on one of them.
The article is here: http://inhabitat.com/the-fallacy-of-cleaning-the-gyres-of-plastic-with-a-floating-ocean-cleanup-array/
