By mid 2022, plastic pollution at sea had become severe enough to interfere with ship operations. Splash247 reported on cases documented through Eyesea where vessels could not function at full capacity because plastic was building up inside onboard machinery.
Clogged coolers and slowed ships
One documented example showed a container vessel trading between South Asia and the Gulf that could not proceed at full speed or run its full reefer container capacity, because clogged cooler strainers were causing overheating. Founder Graeme Somerville-Ryan said multiple shipping contacts reported the same problem as regular and increasing, felt most acutely off the coast of East Africa, with ports in Southeast Asia also named as hotspots.
The data behind the story
The article also recorded two milestones: German apparel maker GOT BAG had become the first company from outside shipping to join the initiative, and Eyesea had collected over 120,000 data points from more than 65 countries and territories.
Source
- Splash247, 22 June 2022. Reports the operational impact of plastic at sea and Eyesea’s data.
