Research of alternative methods of marine litter collection : Study of marine plastic pollution

Sammanfattning: The discovery of plastic and its unique qualities created a great opportunity for manufacturing and an improved quality of life. The annual production of plastic is 368 million tonnes, this number is continuously increasing as nowadays almost every product has a plastic component in it. However, this improvement in lifestyle comes at a cost. Marine plastic pollution is one of the biggest problems that humanity faces today. Pollution already affects not only the climate on our planet but our health as well. Several different technical solutions exist today for gathering litter in different areas. The goal of the thesis was to research and develop a concept that will allow a broader audience to participate in the marine litter clean up and contribute to cleaner water. The research was conducted to see if there were any gaps in the market. For the exploration of design alternatives, a human-centred approach was used where both qualitative and quantitative methods were implemented. The research concluded that the most suitable area for targeting marine litter was within the city waters as they stand for a substantial amount it. For the methods of litter collecting, private boats were explored first without any success. Other types of boats were explored, such as tourist boats, however, it showed to be challenging to adapt these boats to collect litter as well. The decision then was made that a purposely designed collector was a better method of solving problems. Two concepts were developed of which one was taken to further development. The idea was to create a pedalo tour that allows people to see the city from the water and at the same time collect floating litter. The concept would help to spread awareness about marine litter both for the users and bypassers in a fun way.