Don’t trash the trash-collecting machine
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OCEAN CLEANUP
The 2,000-foot boom used by the environmental group The Ocean Cleanup will be arriving in Hilo Harbor on Sunday.
Tugboats towed System 001 — a 2,000-foot-long, U-shaped trash-collecting barrier — into Hilo Harbor on Thursday so that Ocean Cleanup, its nonprofit operator, can take stock of needed repairs.
Billed as the world’s first floating ocean cleanup device, System 001 is fitted with a 10-foot-deep skirt that catches underwater debris, ranging from large fishing nets to tiny microplastics. Its work in the Great Garbage Patch, between Hawaii and California, was halted last month when apparatus unexpected detached. Here’s hoping for a quick fix — and the realization of plans to eventually dispatch a fleet of devices to clean half of the gyre-formed patch every five years.
Taking to the streets to protest shutdown
Demonstrations, such as the union sign-waving at the airport in support of unpaid federal workers, are popping up around the country as the partial government shutdown drags on.
Thursday’s show of solidarity at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport was aimed at the beleaguered Transportation Security Administration staffers at security lines. But the range of federal employees now missing paychecks means the effect is trickling down. Especially in areas with heavy federal staff concentrations, businesses are feeling the pinch. Let’s hope this ends somehow — and soon.
