Recycled Island: an island the size of Hawaii made from recycled plastic

by Oliver Wheaton

What can we do to clean up our oceans? Millions of tonnes of discarded plastic finds it way to the ocean each year, where it can take up to 500 years to break down. Most of this plastic waste ends up in one of the massive ocean gyres where it collects with thousands of other waste items due to ocean currents. Not only do these ocean gyres look horrific as they pollute the natural beauty of the oceans, but they are also having an extremely damaging effect on wildlife. Animals, particularly birds, mistake some of the items for food and either eat them or feed them to their young, inevitably resulting in their deaths.

So how can we clean up such a vast amount of waste, and where would we put it? The Dutch company Whim Architecture have come up with an innovative, forward thinking, and most importantly environmentally friendly solution.

They plan to transform the North Atlantic ocean gyre into a new living space in the form of a recycled island. The plastic will be recycled on the spot and used to form the base of an island that will be the size of Hawaii. And the ecofriendly processes do not stop at the construction of the island; it is intended to be an entirely self sufficient environment, complete with farms to provide food for the inhabitants and wind and wave power to provide electricity.

As well as cleaning the oceans and acting as a good example of a sustainable habitat, the island will also offer new land to climate refugees. It is estimated that within 30 years environmental disasters resulting directly from global warming could create up to 200 million climate refugees (people forced to move due to the destruction of their homelands). What better place to house these unfortunate people than an place like recycled island?
“The project is a small contribution in creating new land where more and more settlements are currently threatened with the consequences of climate change – says Ramon Knoester from WHIM Architecture - Recycled island offers a safe new living environment for only a small part of the world population. Climate refugees seem the most logic to house on Recycled island, because they are already forced to leave their natural habitat. In principle anybody could live there. Because of the unique character of Recycled island it has the potential of becoming a tourist attraction".

The project is still in the concept phase and currently the team are looking at building a small prototype of the island. Following the testing of this, the gathering of plastic from the ocean will begin, and it is anticipated the a large part of the island will be completed in 5 years time. To reduce the carbon emissions produced by the project the recycling of the plastic and construction of the island is expected to take place on site, so less energy is wasted transporting the collected plastic back to a mainland destination to be recycled, and then transported back to the site.

To many the island will serve as a testament to the staggering amount of waste our modern society produces. Has it really got to the point where we can build an entire island out of recycled waste? Hopefully the island’s completion will highlight the problem. There have been countless other attempts to clean the oceans of human waste, but none have been as inventive or on such a large scale as this.

The designers of Recycled Island have a lot of work to do, but are keeping optimistic. They even believe that if the project is successful, it could inspire similar operations to clean up other ocean gyres;“If we are successful with Recycled island in the North Pacific Gyre it is useful to use the same techniques for the other Gyres. Maybe we could even use the techniques for the pollution in seas and shores where also the plastic pollution is dramatic”.