Capturing the Plastic Vortex

Photos / Alex Hofford and Greenpeace

Headed by Hong Kong based Doug Woodring, Project Kaisei is a research mission to study how we can capture plastic waste in the ocean from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (four times as big as Japan) and turn it into diesel fuel. The first time in history someone is addressing the millions of tons of floating plastic waste and trying to find a solution to the problem, which has been affecting marine life, as well as our food chain. Woodring, originally from San Francisco, has a vast background in environment, new media and sports. Vivienne Tang speaks to the innovative pioneer and founder of Project Kaisei about his challenging mission and his views on changing the cycles of waste.

How did the project start? What was the idea behind it?

I started it about a year ago. I only found out about the problem 18 months ago. I heard about it at a conference, and I googled it. And I thought, "I'm from California, and I've lived in Asia more than 17 years. I know about environmental things. So if I haven't heard about it, most other people definitely wouldn't have either." So I said to myself, "Why hasn't anyone gone out there and made a documentary? ...just blow this out of proportion and make people aware."

After I had this idea I was in San Francisco, and I met a few people. The energy there for environmental things is amazing. Immediately we had a small team and a huge amount of energy. And we said, "Let's do it!" The ship's name is Kaisei, which means Ocean Planet in Japanese. So we started working on this, gathering steam and it wasn't until early this year that we picked up a few new people to help us. One was the producer for the film, who helped us lock in National Geographic. Then there's someone here helping with fundraising, and we got Fleishman-Hillard involved, which is a big PR firm. So all of a sudden things started to build. Now it's huge... just within a couple of months. Now we're one of only five groups of the United Nations' Climate Heroes that they want to take to Copenhagen next year. They'll be adding more heroes, but we're one of the first ones. We're working very closely with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (one of the oldest and largest centres for global science research and education).

So the whole problem is plastics in the ocean. The vortex is the biggest place... actually there's five vortexes in the world. North/South Pacific, North/South Atlantic and one in the Indian Ocean. But the North Pacific one is the biggest. And no one's done anything about it. It's in international water. It takes four to five days to get there. No one sees it. No one cares. No one's done anything. The governments aren't going to do anything, because there's no one pushing them. So it's up to someone to say, "Enough is enough!" And that's what we're doing. So now that we've started this, it's turned out to be much more than just a documentary. We have now some of the world's leading plastic technologies that we'll be able to deploy. We're not planning to clean up on this mission. This is the fact-finding mission. We have to figure out how to actually catch the stuff, because a lot of it is very small. You can get close but it's very small. The sun breaks it down. It's been in the water for ten years. That's when the fish eat it, the marine life eats it. So we're going to be doing a lot of science studies on the toxicity of the plastic and how that affects the food chain, because there's a lot of evidence now that it goes into our system. Now it's more than a garbage issue, but a health issue. We're working now with some of the top ocean people. This is one of the best ocean projects they've ever seen. One of the reasons is, a lot of the missions are very science focused and they're trying to buy out something. But they're not about fixing the problem or making media, they're not about making public awareness. And we're doing all of that. That's why they like us. We even have a children's book.

Who came up with that?

My friend's sister wrote it five years ago. It's never been published. She wrote it for her daughter. We were having a drink one evening, and I told her what I'm doing, and she said, "My sister wrote a book about this!"

We have Google Earth, which we'll be working with on the mapping and tracking. But right now we're trying to raise the money.

I believe the idea is also to create fuel from the plastic?

Yes, the plan is to make fuel in the long run. There are new technologies that can do that. One thing is to clean up the ocean, but the long-term business opportunity for many people is to get these new technologies and to put them in their own country, turn the plastic, all this crap into diesel and get rid of it, so at least it's not floating around. So there are business and clean-up opportunities. Right now only about five percent of the world's plastic ever gets recycled. That means that there is no value on plastic, zero. If we all of a sudden create value from it by making that fuel, then there is room, and you can put a bounty on the plastic to be collected, because someone will pay. That's what we have to do, change the whole cycle. Of course other companies are making biodegradable plastic. That's also necessary. But there is so much plastic in the world right now, and none of it is getting recycled. There is a huge gap and a huge opportunity to get these machines out there. If we find out that we can catch enough volume to make the machines worthwhile, then we'll plan a big clean-up mission.

How do you take away all the plastic without damaging the marine life?

This stuff only sits two to three metres in the water, because if it would sink, it already sank. So it's only at the top, and there's not a lot of marine life in the daytime hanging out at the top of the water. There is plankton and small fish. We're trying to figure out a way to catch the stuff and not the marine life. Inevitably there will be some, but they're living in a false environment, in a toxic environment. The benefits of cleaning this up are much greater. Huge amounts of turtles, birds, fish... We don't even know how much is dying, because it dies before we see it, and it will sink. Basically we've polluted the hell out of our waters. And even though this is a vortex in the middle of the ocean, we've all seen plastic on the beaches.

Are you involved in the beach clean-ups?

We've started a huge event for World Ocean Day (June 8). We're going to do a first ever global ocean sports clean-up (June 7). So we're bringing in paddlers, surfers, divers and sailors. We'll get them out into the water to clean up stuff. We'll have a big one here with BBQ at the Sea School. That's a bit different from the beach clean-up, but it's to raise awareness of what we're doing in the ocean.

What are the main reasons for Project Kaisei?

The first thing is awareness. The second one is figuring out a way to catch it. The third one is to test if the caught stuff can be turned into something valuable, and also testing the toxicity and the health or marine life that it's affecting. The toxicity could become a seafood and fishing related issue. The world is totally overfished, and news like this might help people not wanting to eat fish. The whole West Coast of the US is closed down now for salmon fishing. There is no more salmon. They closed it down to give the salmon a chance to grow back. The first time ever. We might be using some of those fishing boats and fishermen. Instead of fishing, we send them out to get this.

You will be heading out to the vortex in June? Do you have any plans for when you return from your trip in August?

Probably July and August now. This is probably just the first chapter. If we figure out that we can catch things, remediate it and make it to fuel (that would subsidise the clean-up.), then we'll plan that for 12 or 18 months later. Now Scripps Institution is talking to us about looking at all of the vortexes. No one's ever looked at the other ones. So we might be doing future missions. I think we'll end up doing much outreach after this, lobbying and speaking to everything and everyone from the bottlers to the plastic users to different government policies on how to use different technologies to change the laws around this. There's much work that could be done later on.

This trip will last 70 days?

If we get enough money, yes. Most boats that have gone out there have only been in the vortex for 10 - 12 days, but we want to have a longer period in each area to get a much bigger knowledge. Of course you can't do it all at the same time, and it's not visible on satellite, because a lot of the stuff has broken down.

What has been the most interesting experience in connection with this project?

It's only just getting going. I guess one great sign of fate... On the spur of the moment I went to Washington DC to this big conference on ocean's Blue Vision in March. A very big thing, and I was the only person from Asia. I met Sylvia Earle, she is the queen of the oceans. She is incredible. We sat down for half an hour and talked about our project. She was very supportive. Then a week later I was in Google's offices, and they have quite a big campus. I went up the elevator and when I walked out, there was Sylvia Earle again. She helped them make Google Ocean. It was just good Feng Shui that we met again. I think the exciting part is that people are contacting us from all over the world, just wanting to volunteer. People love this story. Everyone's heard of racial issues, ice caps melting, and forestation problems, but almost no one's heard of this one. It's so compelling. People say, "Wow, this is horrible! I don't even know about it."

What can the individual person do apart from donating money and using less plastic?

It's all about lobbying and getting corporations to behave like good citizens. Look at how much crap is being used in coffee shops and how supermarkets are packaging things. It's pathetic. It's not just about the plastic bag. It's also about how they package the apples, and how they shrinkwrap six things together so you buy a super pack. And they think that consumers want this. Not one consumer ever asked for that. They are just doing it, because they want to sell more.

The recycling policies here are a joke. The government doesn't get it. But this is the biggest environmental mission ever organised from Asia. I just want the tide to rise and all the PR around it. The name Hong Kong is going to be in there. They are going to notice that, "Wow, we're getting some good PR because of this project. What the hell is going on?" Then I can talk to them. They've just expanded the landfill by five hectares, and they didn't mention one thing about how we can reduce the waste or a new recycling system.

As soon as we can put a value on these bags, wraps, containers and cups, then that stuff will get sucked out of our lives right away, because people will want to collect it and make some money. Then that will change.

So these machines already exist?

They're very new. So they're not propagated around the world. Every community of 200,000 people or more should have one. A great way to do things is to write letters to corporations, especially here, because they're not as switched on as they are in the US. They say they are, but they're not. ...and apply pressure, say, "Why do you have this kind of policy of wrapping?" and cc copy the press. One letter can make a difference. We can do that these days with the internet. You can figure out who you need to write to, and that makes a difference. You have to get these people to wake up. An unfortunate problem is that Chinese culture is one that doesn't speak up, and this is a big problem with air pollution. Studies have shown that people care a lot about air pollution. But they do not talk about it. If you don't raise your voice, there will never be any pressure, and people won't feel that they have to make a change.

Do you have a motto?

"Only if it brings change"

What's the worst and the best about the environmental industry?

It's the most exciting, far-reaching and biggest opportunity that has ever come along, like the internet, but that's all digital. With the environment every single product, service or company that we can even think of could all have an innovative environmental technology. Whether the window, the lighting or the table is different, everything could be changed. The opportunity is enormous. The problem is, the people's mentality is way to slow and old-fashioned. Especially here in Asia, people are way too worried about cost. I'm not saying cost is not a worry. But they're calculating the benefits in the wrong way. When you talk about renewable energy, they don't look at the bigger picture. Some of them are hidden benefits or social benefits that you can't easily calculate. But your brand will improve, your image to your employees improves, your image to your surrounding society will improve, your efficiency increases, your product use goes down. There are many many things, and most people (if it's renewable energy) the first thing they ask is, "How much energy can I make?" They just want to know that. They say, "What's the payback?" So I say, "What's the payback of your table? You don't calculate the payback of your table, but you buy the table. Why? Because you need it. You need to have a renewable energy, because we need the change. And your kids need to have a different world." When I said that to some people, they started to laugh, but then they realised that I'm right. Why do you put glass on a window? So you can see through it, and you want to. It's actually very inefficient on the energy side. But you do it because you want to look out of the window. If you're going to put renewable energy, you're doing that because you want to reduce your load of energy use in the building. It's not about how much money you're making from that. It's about being a good citizen. People have to change their way of thinking. The frustrating part is that people are just way too slow. They don't get it. The ones who lead and move fast will have such an advantage over their competitors.

Now there are so many technologies that you can pull so many things out of waste and you can make a new product out of anything. Copper, a lot of that has already been done; plastics, now you can make diesel; all the organics can be high-grade fertilizer. There are just so many things. The new companies need some support from the government. There is not one case in the world where environment has been improved because of voluntarism, never. You need to regulate. If you regulate, then you get innovation. If you get innovation, you get new jobs. If you don't regulate, then people don't move to the next level and don't try to find a way to meet the new regulation. But without regulation, the cheapskates, who are polluting more than anyone else, can continue to pollute. If the regulation changes, these guys will fall away or have to fix their case. The guys who are really doing the right thing will be rewarded and will excel.

What are the 5 main things you do to make the world a better place?

Project Kaisei, it's one of the most amazing things I've ever been involved in. It's snowballing out of control. There's about ten of us working on it now in London, here and San Francisco. Just to manage volunteers is already a new job that I need to fill.

Our World Ocean Day clean-up will be one of the coolest things. The water sports community is going to be the biggest proponent in cleaning in the ocean. No one has ever put all these groups together, and a lot of these clubs and groups don't organise their own events. This is a great way for everyone to be unified and to grab on to a much bigger cause.

I do things with air pollution here. I like challenging people, because if you don't ask questions, people won't be forced to think about the answers. So I write letters to the editor, and I challenge the government. Usually I don't get replies, and they don't do anything. That's a bit frustrating.

Organising sports events, that's something that I do. I do that for sports and also ocean conservation. Sports is a huge thing that Hong Kong also lacks.

Connecting people and projects. When I see a new thing, a good environmental product, if I can't do it myself, at least I know who they should talk to. And I can speed up things to market.

What drives you? What is your motivation?

I think I just believe that I can do almost anything. I like challenges. If it's a cool idea that no one's done, then I'm motivated. I'll do it.

For more information go to www.projectkaisei.org. Chek out details for the World Ocean Day Sports Clean-Up, click here.