A. Read the article about plastic pollution in the ocean. Then choose A, B, C, or D.

Plastic Pollution: Can the Ocean Really Be Cleaned Up?

1 Somewhere in Hilo, on Hawaii, a team of scientists and engineers are fixing the 2,000-foot-long garbage-cleaning device for the Ocean Cleanup project. During its first trip to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it fractured into two pieces. The Ocean Cleanup project has had quite a few problems since it began and has been criticized by marine scientists and environmental groups for its potentially negative environmental impact. However, some still believe the Ocean Cleanup project is having a positive effect on reducing the amount of plastic pollution.

2 Pete Ceglinski is the co-founder and chief executive of the Seabin Project. Seabins are huge devices that remove plastic from the water and are used in harbors and marinas. He believes Boyan Slat, the inventor behind the Ocean Cleanup project, has increased global awareness of the ocean plastics issue over the past six years, but marine biologist Dr. Jennifer Lavers from the University of Tasmania says that argument is also one of the project’s disadvantages: “I think that’s really dangerous.” Lavers says that the project gives people a false sense of hope that we can solve the problem by just throwing more money at it.

3 Plastic pollution is a problem for the world’s marine life that inhabit the oceans. According to the United Nations, a daunting 8 million tons of plastic waste is dumped in the oceans annually. It has been discovered at the deepest point of the ocean as well as in the snow of the Arctic and Antarctic. Scientists now believe “plastic is literally everywhere.” It’s unavoidable that there will be plastic in fish, and through the food chain, eventually plastic will get inside us.

4 So the idea of attempting to “clean up” the ocean is strange. Can these projects really make a difference? The answer is yes, but not as expected. Smaller technical solutions can make an impact in a localized area. Two garbage-collecting Seabins were recently installed in Sydney’s Darling Harbor. There are 450 Seabins in 26 countries around the world, in 60 harbors throughout the United States, Europe, and now Asia and the Pacific, collecting on average around 9 pounds of marine trash a day—or about 1.4 tons a year, according to Ceglinski.

5 Lavers, who has been studying ocean plastics for the past 15 years, says these are good examples of small-scale cleanups that can have a local impact. However, she warns that the there is more urgency to the problem and we can’t use technology to solve the problem. “What we really need is policy change, and behavioral change, and that’s just starting to happen.” Lavers believes that things have changed rapidly in the past 12 to 18 months. She says points to the European Union announcing enormous bans on single-use plastics and microplastics as the important, meaningful change we need.

6 What cleanup projects such as the Ocean Cleanup and Seabins are good at is increasing awareness of the plastic problem. Says Ceglinski, “The real goal is to stop plastics from entering the water in the first place. And we can do that using the Seabin as a powerful communication tool.” He adds, “We don’t want people to be okay with throwing plastic in the water because the Seabin will pick it up for them. This was one of the main reasons we set out to attack it!”

7 So, like Seabins quietly sucking away in harbors, community and individual cleanup action plays a role too. When you add up the numbers, the potential impact of picking up garbage on beaches is huge. “There are around 50,000 volunteers who participate regularly in beach cleanups,” says Lavers. “One single plastic bottle removed from a beach prevents it from going back into the ocean where it will eventually break into tens of thousands plastic particles.” Lavers believes that there is value in getting bigger items off the beach while we still can. Once they break up in the marine environment, we have little to no hope of ever cleaning them up, at least not with current technology.

8 Heidi Taylor, managing director of Tangaroa Blue Foundation, says cleanups must educate people to cut down plastic consumption as well. “If all we do is clean up, then that’s all we’ll ever do. We have to stop plastic ending up in the environment in the first place by cutting down the amount we buy and use.” The data collected from beach cleanups give groups such as Tangaroa Blue the power to question industries and producers about their roles in the plastic problem. “The cleanup is how we collect evidence,” says Taylor. Volunteers don’t just pick up garbage; they also record brands and barcodes. These data can be used to target the sources. Taylor noticed a difference in the beach cleanup data after the ban on single-use plastic bags. “We’re seeing thicker bags, and now we know where they come from because they’re branded, whereas before they were all grey.”

9 Recently the Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI) reached 13 million items of marine debris picked up from an Australian beach with its details reported by volunteers. Lavers is using the AMDI data to determine whether the pollution has been reduced. “Asking this question is only possible because of Tangaroa Blue and other contributors to the AMDI. There’s no way we can write off beach cleanups as some small, meaningless contribution to the global plastic pollution problem.”

Question 1:

1. According to the article, what is true about the Ocean Cleanup project?

A. It has been rebuilt a number of times already.

B. It has increased global awareness of marine conservation considerably.

C. It needs more money in order to become a success.

D. It has been attacked by parts of the scientific community.

2. What do the examples in paragraphs 3 and 4 show?

A. Plastic is everywhere, so there is no point trying to clean it up.

B. Cleaning up the ocean is a slow process that will take a long time.

C. Cleanup operations are of limited value but can help in smaller areas.

D. Seabins clean the ocean more effectively in some areas than in other areas.

3. What does Dr. Lavers think is needed to effectively reduce waste?

A. local cleanups and individual efforts

B. governmental action and habit change

C. technological inventions to remove trash

D. changes in how people shop

4. According to the passage, what would Ceglinksi and Lavers agree on?

A. Technology will eventually remove most of the trash from the ocean.

B. It is currently impossible to remove plastic fragments from the ocean.

C. The main role of cleanup technology is to encourage less plastic use.

D. Many more volunteers will be needed for the beach cleaning projects.

5. According to the last two paragraphs, which of the following is true?

A. By using data, cleanup foundations can make companies account for the garbage they produce.

B. Beach cleanups are unhelpful in the long term because they remove small amounts of trash.

C. It is unnecessary for volunteers to document the type of trash and barcodes from it.

D. Before restrictions on single-use plastic bags, most bags produced were thick and branded.

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Question 1 According to the article what is true about the Ocean Cleanup project B It has increased global awareness of marine conservation considerably The article mentions that despite the Ocean Cle... View the full answer