OCEAN HARVEST Matthew Kihm Simone Niquille Providence, Rhode Island 1s the Great Pacifl Garbage Patch to some, the Pacific Trash Vor~ texte others, Whatever you calli, the story's unital the same: way ‘out inthe middle ofthe Pacific Ocean, somewhere between Califr- nia and Japan, currents and human detritus conspire againet marine |e, depositing some 1.9 milion pieces of plastic into each square mile of water. Ocean Harvest, ih is fallow Next Gen runner-up Mar- ine Satellite, diepatches« series of tash-collecting buoys into the ‘murky depths, The difference Is that Ocean Harvest relies on filters to clectrostatically attract plastic bits, some only ene-thousandth the dameter of astand of human har "These particles ar inelden- tally the same size as microorganisms whieh nef out atmosphere," save Matthew Kil, 21, a senior at the Rhode Island ‘School of Design. “That makes for tricky situation.” The filters emit saneloctrosttic field toa weak ols living creatures; nly polymer pieces gat sucked in. When ne bu0ys ilo the brim, 3 GPS system setts passing ships, which ae pald to clean the filters, W 7 | | =| | 120 MetROPOLISMAG.com