Bottle Tags

     Pollution is a major threat to the environment and ecosystems. Out of all the waste that reaches the ocean and major bodies of water, over 80% of it is transported by rivers. Because of this, Emily Duncan of the university of Exeter (U.K.) collected 25 500mL bottles, implanted with special tracking technology, to monitor the travel of waste as it travels through rivers. Using this method, they found that waste often travelled into large bodies of water far from where they were release, one time even 2845 kilometers away. With these results, additional studies have shown just how useful for research, informing, etc., this method of tracking is. 

From what I have read, this method seems to be very effective in tracking the movement of waste. Personally, I think that this technology is interesting for many other reasons than to just track waste, as it could be used simply to find river routes and other related paths through waterways, which I think would be pretty cool.  

Link:  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201202192806.htm

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 15, 2020 at 12:12 PM

    Considering cleaning up after people is easier than getting them to change, this is great. As mentioned in the article, people are able to see where most of the waste is collecting, and by knowing this, cleaning the waste is made easier.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 15, 2020 at 1:17 PM

    Pollution is a huge problem today, especially within the Earth's water. Tracking the bottles through the bodies of water it moves through can help us determine the main locations where our trash is so we can clean it up. Tracking the bottles could also help to prevent high amounts of trash being dumped into the water by showing people how widespread the negative affect of one bottle could be.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 15, 2020 at 3:26 PM

    I still can't believe how far the bottles travel because that's really far! Tracking the bottles will definitely be helpful in determining how far all pollution will travel and where it is, so we can clean it up. I think this will be effective in collecting pollution and stopping it from spreading, but how do we stop it from being polluted in the first place?

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousDecember 16, 2020 at 5:05 AM

    I think this way of tracking the pollution in the world, is very smart. It might not be the most big and high-tech, but those big machines only break down and stop working. This technique is simple and easy, and will definitely get the job done right.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2021 at 3:32 PM

    Typically, when I think of a tracker I picture an animal tag or some high tech gadget in a spy movie. If anything this bottle tag is an example of human creativity and ingenuity- repurposing existing technology to fit new objectives. Not only will these bottle tags help clean up crews locate areas of pollution collection, but it will also help scientists identify the sources of the pollution via reverse tracing. With this information, it is possible for researchers to go straight to the source and work to reduce pollution there so it wouldn't have to travel down the rivers in the first place.

    ReplyDelete

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