Nokia partners The Ocean Cleanup to tackle the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Author: Harry Baldock
Pollution of the world’s oceans, particularly with discarded plastic, has been a growing problem for over half a century. The scale of this challenge cannot be underestimated. UNESCO suggests that plastic waste comprises 80% of all marine pollution, with 8–10 metric tons of plastic arriving in the world’s oceans each year. Indeed, a recent study suggested that 82 and 358 trillion plastic particles, weighing between 2.4–10.8 billion pounds, are floating across the world. Indeed, nowhere is the challenge of oceanic plastic pollution more obvious than the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – roughly 1.6 million square kilometres of plastic waste floating at the heart of the Pacific. Now, Nokia has partnered with environmental non-profit organisation The Ocean Cleanup, aiming to lend their technological expertise to tackling this growing ecological crisis. As part of the partnership, Nokia and MCS, its partner for Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) distribution in the Benelux, have already deployed a Nokia DAC private wireless solution for The Ocean Cleanup’s operations in the North Pacific. This will provide the organisation with “a high-performance, end-to-end private wireless networking and edge computing platform” for The Ocean Cleanup’s two ships involved in the clean-up operation. Nokia will also provide support in the form of their MX Industrial Edge (MXIE) and analytics, which will be used for applications including high-end video connectivity over 4G technology, which can be used to help scout future areas for clean-up.