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Our biggest ever river catch?

theoceancleanup.com

1–10 of 190 posts

Re: Our biggest ever river catch?

#3
i'm curious about the split between capital versus philanthropic funding for an operation like this.

i feel certain that this relatively new (sub?)industry—waterway/ocean waste management—is here to stay for a very long time. but i struggle to see how it could ever turn a profit, unless and until they're able to generate revenue/s from the waste they're retrieving. it all feels like a fascinatingly super long play.

Re: Our biggest ever river catch?

#4
I'm curious how much effort is being put into avoiding this trash ending up in the rivers in the first place. Obviously it's important to catch it before it gets in the ocean, but if people are just dumping directly into the river far upstream, this feels like a Sisyphian task

Re: Our biggest ever river catch?

#5

i'm curious about the split between capital versus philanthropic funding for an operation like this. i feel certain that this relatively new (sub?)industry—waterway/ocean waste management—is here to stay for a very long time. but i struggle to see how it could ever turn a profit, unless and until they're able to generate revenue/s from the waste they're retrieving. it all feels like a fascinatingly super long play.

I imagine that it is not onerously expensive to run, and it's a good way for larger companies to look like they care by throwing a few nickels their way.

Further, I imagine that for some cities, the potential increase in tourism from having clean waters might be worth the investment.

Re: Our biggest ever river catch?

#7

I'm curious how much effort is being put into avoiding this trash ending up in the rivers in the first place. Obviously it's important to catch it before it gets in the ocean, but if people are just dumping directly into the river far upstream, this feels like a Sisyphian task

Having been to Guatemala, the culture is to throw most trash on the ground. The trash is then washed into the rivers during heavy rains. It's sad to see. The country has a lot of natural beauty, but there is trash everywhere.

Re: Our biggest ever river catch?

#8

i'm curious about the split between capital versus philanthropic funding for an operation like this. i feel certain that this relatively new (sub?)industry—waterway/ocean waste management—is here to stay for a very long time. but i struggle to see how it could ever turn a profit, unless and until they're able to generate revenue/s from the waste they're retrieving. it all feels like a fascinatingly super long play.

Sorry for the offtopicness - would you mind putting an email address in your profile so we can send you repost invites? I was able to re-up* the current thread but it was right on the cusp of being too old for that system to work; in which case I would have tried (but failed) to email you a repost link! (Btw the email field in user profiles is only seen by admins.)

* System described at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26998309 and links back from there

Re: Our biggest ever river catch?

#9
Credit to this organization from pivoting (AFAIK) from their original plan to scrape the plastic out of the water on the open ocean ("System 001"). Intercepting plastic at river mouths seems much more practical and cost effective.
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