Sea change

On Kayak Island, off the south-central coast of Alaska, a team of researchers, students and conservationists combs the shoreline.

The team finds a message in a bottle—a rare discovery—but the bottle isn’t alone. It is surrounded by hundreds of thousands of pounds of plastic, a reminder that even the remote reaches of the world are affected by the growing plastics crisis.

The team, led by Ocean Plastics Recovery Project (OPR) co-founders Andy Schroeder and Scott Farling, is conducting a cleanup initiative dedicated to removing marine debris from the coastlines of the Gulf of Alaska.

Though badly water-damaged, the team manages to decipher enough of the note to trace it back to its sender. The message, written by a young girl in Washington, spent decades drifting on ocean currents before finally washing up on the shores of Alaska. Now in her 40s, the sender is astonished to see it resurface.

“It was pretty cool to see our team come together to do all that sleuth work,” Farling says.

While this bottle found its way back to its owner, what to do with the rest of the marine debris is the question OPR is determined to answer.

The mission

OPR was founded in 2018 and takes a unique and multifaceted approach to tackling marine plastic.

Schroeder has been leading cleanup initiatives in the Gulf of Alaska since 2007. However, for OPR, the mission extends far beyond collection.

“Our dream is to build a recycling line that goes all the way from sorting through to a finished product, with educational components built into all of that,” Farling says.

To bring this vision to life, OPR is advancing recycling research by partnering with universities and industry leaders. These collaborations explore solutions such as mechanical recycling, chemical recycling, gasification and pyrolysis. By transforming recovered plastics into raw materials, OPR wants to prove that cleanup efforts can be environmentally impactful and financially viable.

Education is another key part of this initiative. Through internships, students gain hands-on experience in every stage of the process.

Storytelling is the final piece of OPR’s strategy. Filmmaker and OPR team member Max Romey documents the impact of marine debris, using powerful visuals to raise awareness and inspire change. By combining environmental action, education and media, OPR is reshaping how ocean plastic pollution is tackled.

The growing crisis of ocean plastics

Between 4.8 million and 12.7 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean each year, posing systemic threats.

Ocean plastics entangle marine life and enter the food chain through ingestion by fish and other animals. Mismanaged plastic leaches toxic chemicals and emits greenhouse gases as it degrades, according to the paper “Production of methane and ethylene from plastic in the environment” by Sarah-Jeanne Royer, Sara Ferrón, Samuel Wilson and David Karl, which appeared in Volume 13 of Plos One in August 2018.

As plastics break down, they become significantly harder to remove, making swift cleanup efforts critical.

Unlike other debris, plastics do not biodegrade but instead break down into smaller fragments, turning into microplastics and eventually nanoplastics.

“A 5-gallon bucket sitting on a beach isn’t going to cause as many problems,” Farling says. “But once it’s at the micro or nanoscale, it’s almost impossible to remove from the ocean, and that’s when the biggest impact happens.”

Micro and nanoplastics harm plankton and other foundational organisms in the ocean ecosystem, according to the report “Can microplastics pose a threat to ocean carbon sequestration?” written by Maocai Shen, Shujing Ye, Guangming Zeng, Yaxin Zhang, Lang Xing, Wangwang Tang, Xiaofeng Wen and Shaoheng Liu, which was published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, Volume 150, January 2020.

These microscopic plants and animals not only form the base of the marine food chain but also play a crucial role in sequestering carbon from the atmosphere, a process known as a biological carbon pump. Evidence indicates that nano plastics inhibit plankton’s ability to fulfill both of these roles.

With the looming threat of ocean plastics, organizations like OPR recognize the need to act fast, before the plastics break down to that scale.

Targeting high-impact cleanup zones

Back in the Gulf of Alaska, the OPR team works strategically to maximize its efforts. To make the biggest impact, the team targets catchment areas—locations where ocean debris naturally accumulates.

Schroeder, a longtime Alaska resident, has spent nearly two decades leading conservation efforts in the gulf. His knowledge of the region helps OPR pinpoint the most strategic sites for cleanup.

“Beaches do a great job at passive collection,” he says.

While research on the behavior of plastic waste once it enters the ocean is still ongoing, it is estimated that nearly 80 percent of ocean plastic eventually washes up on beaches or remains in coastal waters.

However, different plastics accumulate in different ways. Rigid plastics, like detergent bottles and crates, tend to wash up on windy beaches because of their buoyancy, while fishing nets and lines, which sit lower in the water, are more affected by tides and currents.

The challenge of recycling ocean plastics

As cleanup efforts expanded through the years, Schroeder faced a major obstacle as waste management companies were unwilling to take the plastic collected by his team.

The long-term solution became apparent; to continue to expand its efforts, OPR needed to handle its own plastic.

“From the start, we wanted to run our own recycling,” Farling says. “Due to the complexity of the waste stream, we benefit from having more control and improving our process.”

While most ocean cleanup initiatives focus solely on debris removal, OPR wants to take it a step further, figuring out how to recycle the plastics and create usable materials. But turning ocean plastics into raw material is no easy task.

Sorting is a critical step in recycling, but handling ocean plastics adds layers of complexity. These plastics come in a wide range of resin types and grades, and once collected, they vary in degradation levels given their exposure to the elements. These factors determine which recycling methods will be effective.

Additionally, ocean-recovered plastics can be contaminated heavily with sand, algae and other debris, further complicating the recycling process. “More than half of what we collect are nets and lines, and once they’ve hit the beaches, they’re pretty contaminated,” Farling says. “That makes them hard to handle.”

OPR needed an industrial shredder capable of processing fishing gear and other plastics efficiently.

Finding the right shredder

OPR turned to Wilsonville, Oregon-based manufacturer SSI Shredding Systems Inc. for a solution, and Farling and his team worked with longtime SSI representative Dave Wilson to find the right fit.

“We have a variety of different technologies,” Wilson says of SSI’s offerings. “Our review process directs us to which is best for the customer.”

For OPR, the Quad Q85 four-shaft shredder with a ram hopper was the ideal fit. The Quad shredder reduces incoming plastics to a universal particle size, making sorting, cleaning and recycling more efficient and successful.

The Q85’s low-speed, high-torque design ensures it can handle bulky fishing lines while still being versatile enough for a wide range of plastics. The shredder’s upper and lower cutters work to clean each other during operation, preventing fishing lines and nets from wrapping around the shafts, a common problem with conventional shredders.

The machine also features SSI’s patented SmartDrive technology, which automatically adjusts shaft speed and torque based on material difficulty. When processing heavy fishing lines, the system slows down to increase shredding force. For lighter plastics, it speeds up to improve throughput. Additionally, a built-in ram feeder ensures that light-weight bulky items like plastic drums are efficiently fed into the cutting zone.

For more than four decades, SSI says it has taken a solutions-driven approach, tailoring shredding technology to meet the unique challenges of each application. “[SSI] pulls together as a team, combining decades of experience to drive the right solution for the customer,” Farling says.

The future of our oceans

With millions of tons of plastic in the ocean and a limited amount of time to collect it, the crisis is urgent. Marine ecosystems, already under strain from climate change and pollution, face additional harm from plastic pollution.

Currently, government grants fund much of the environmental research and cleanup operations, but Farling says more capital is necessary to address the scale of the problem.

“We need to create an economy around environmental services,” he says.

As research advances and partnerships grow, OPR is demonstrating that tackling the ocean plastics crisis requires more than just cleanup. By integrating science, industry and financial sustainability, it is proving that a lasting solution can be within reach.

This article was contributed on behalf of SSI and Ocean Plastics Recovery Project.