Sinking discarded plastics in the marine fossas by pelletizing it with other solids material to give them weight and to avoid their decomposition in ocean water.

1. by Roberto Boca
Sinking discarded plastics
in the marine fossas
by pelletizing it with other
solids material to give them
weight and to avoid their
decomposition in water.
T H E P R O J E C T

2. Plastic came to change and make easy the entire humanity’s life. Since its
introduction a myriad of new application also has been added as studies and evolved
technology had introduced new properties to it.
The manufacturing processes of plastic-based products have made them so cheap
and shorten its life cycle so significantly, but together also introduced the disposable
product. Purchasing a new similar product is less expensive than repairing the
damaged one. In many cases to fix the defective product is not even possible.
Sinking discarded plastics into the marine fossas
by pelletizing it with other solid material to give them
weight and to avoid their decomposition in the water.
T H E P R O B L E M T O B E S O L V E D

3. The disposal of packaging and plastic bags has become a very serious problem for the planet.
Although it has made people’s lives easier, nature does not decompose it as quickly as it
is manufactured. Plastic is a synthetic product produced from petroleum. Crude oil extraction
is bringing back to the planet’s surface the carbon that had been trapped underground by
thousands of years. The abundance of carbon in nature asphyxiated the planet in the remote
past, making it inhospitable by then. As it was being suppressed from the surface and trapped
underground, the biosphere was then being shaped to become what it is. Today it houses all the
life on the planet and it took billions of years for this to take shape and be possible. But here
and there the signs of your commitment are emerging.
But the large volume of plastic discarded are the packaging that come along with the product.
The disposable plastic packaging has made it very practical and inexpensive to pack in a varied
kind of products, especially the food industry that holds the championship of its use.

4. When it comes to nature damage, people’s tendency is to think on things directly within reach of
their sights, like trees, forests, soil, atmosphere, wildlife, but the greater damage is far from their
sight, threatening all the lives of the planet, the oceans which represent 70% of its entire surface.
They houses an overwhelming proportion of the planet’s ecosystems. Most of the living organisms
that inhabit our planet are there. The oceans also decisively influence the climate of all continents.
Transformed in a range of fuels and other synthetic derivatives, the use of fossil fuel has been
asphyxiating the entire planet again along its escalating use. But especially plastic and mainly
disposable packaging have caused even greater and lasting damage to the biosphere. The incorrect
and lack of knowledge about the right way of disposal are providing irreparable damage. By the
speed in which it happens it becomes more practical to create solutions that minimize its impacts
on the environment than educating and disciplining its use.

5. The oceans are littered with disposed plastics. There are places where the amount
floating disposal plastics is so great that even form artificial islands. Floating plastics
islands are the visible part of the problem, detected even by satellites that monitor
the oceans. But the biggest and growing damage is not found on the surface. Fish
and other marine life organisms are being killed by this discarded plastic under the
surface. Attracted by color and movement, plastics are confused with other beings
in their food chain and will end up in the bowels of these marine beings.
But how does that poison get there? The rivers that cut
through the cities take all the discarded plastic on its
course to the oceans. Many times the disposal is made
directly to its stream sending thousands and thousands
of tons to the oceans.
A lot of solutions to prevent these plastic from getting
there and also the proposals to remove it from the oceans
have already been imagined, but all of them would solve
only part of this equation. The big question is, what then,
to do with all the plastic removed from the oceans?

6. This is the name given to this project. Its purpose is to point out practical
and definitive solution for the elimination of discarded plastic that accumulates
in the oceans causing damage to marine life.
Sinking discarded plastics in the marine fossas
by pelletizing it with other solids material to give them weight
and to avoid their decomposition in water.
T H E P E L L E T I Z I N G A N D D E F I N I T I V E D U M P I N G S O L U T I O N

7. Marine fossa usually occur in regions where two tectonic plates that make up the earth’s
crust meet and overlap each other. The heaviest tectonic plate is engulfed down against the
magma of the earth where it is also melted by joining it. In the submerged regions, where
this phenomenon occurs, are the deepest “marine fossa” of the oceans. Below them are the
“subduction zones”, responsible for the renewal of the planet’s crust. According to James
Lovelock, an English scientist, father of Gaia’s hypothesis, every “living” planet has the active
rock cycle, this is the case with our planet. The renewal of the earth’s crust may take billions
of years, but the earth is alive.
Lithosphere mappings have already identified all regions of the planet where the marine
fossas are present. They spread all over the planet. The proposal of this project is to use this
geological phenomenon to “digest” all the plastic in the ocean. But how do you get him
there in those depths? And also, how to avoid them to threaten the marine life wile doing so?
Mantle
Continent
Subducted
Ocean Flor Plate
Ocean Fossa
Ocean
Continental Plate

8. The plastic is light and does not sink alone. The technologies
and logistics to remove it from the ocean to be reprocessed
would be a very complicated operation and would add costs
that could turn the re-use prohibitive. At first sink it into the
ocean arises as the most immediate solution, but only this
would continue to pose a threat to marine life.
The idea is completed with the crushing and pelletization
of plastic in mixture with poor material, taken from the
bottom of the ocean itself. The water and soil material
necessary in the process are already available in place.
Floating sea platforms, used in oil extraction and already
deactivated could be adapted
to accomplish this task. After
the adaptations the platforms
could be anchored on these
“cracks” where they would do
the plastic pelletization and
sunk them towards submarine
fossa underneath.
Pelletization and Disposal Platform
Submarine
pump
Dragging
sedimentary
mud from the
acean floor
Submarine fossa
Solar
Panels
Pelletized
plastic being
dumped to
a submarine
fossa
Disabled oil rig
recommissioned to
pelletize and dump
the diposed plastic
in the oceans fossa
Sedimentary mud
pumped up
to be pelletized
with descarted plastic

9. The time for these spheres produced
by pelletization process to be swallowed
by the subduction plate and taken to
the molten mantle may take centuries,
but they won’t do any contribution to
compromise the marine life any more
as they are melded with marine soil.
As they goes to the bottom of the ocean
they will end-up in the underwater fossa,
a gap generally presented just above
those subduction zone.

10. The pelletization process is analogous to that employed in the steel industry,
although technical studies are needed for its adaptation. What can be
anticipated is that it will require less steps. The energy needed to power the
equipment can be supplied by batteries powered by solar panels, as the
platforms will remain exposed to sunlight most of the time.
1 -
The discarded plastic, containing the most varied shapes and properties, will be
taken to the pelotization platforms. There they will be crushed and mixed with
heavier sediments taken from the bottom of the oceans themselves.
2 -
The resulting paste will be pressed or centrifuged to remove excess water.
3 -
The mixture is now medium solid and homogenous is taken
to the pelletizers for final processing and transformation.
4 -
The aggregated material in pelotons will acquire enough weight for your
final dive into the ocean.
5 -
The pellets are taken to the oven for completely amalgamation of the
material, causing it to solidify further and preventing it from dissolve in
the ocean waters.
The imaginary process of pelletization
for discarded plastics that threaten the oceans
Descarded plastic
lithering the oceans
Fine grain plastic
resulting from the
crushing process
Sedimentary
ocean floor
Mixer
Ciclone
crusher
Solidifier press
Pelletizers
Oven
for material
amalgamation
Damping
pellets
Finished pellets

11. The neglecting way that we have been treating our planet are producing all kinds of
horrors, but the most serious and damaging to our very existence, certainly, is the
asphyxiation of the oceans and the diversity of life contained in it and that also sustains us.
To re-educate the entire civilization may not generate immediate results that can reverse
this destruction in time. The proposition of a faster, definitive and non-polluting solution
is the most plausible. Its execution is feasible and deserve of global appreciation.
Last words