ltimately, the best way to solve the issue of marine oil spills is to prevent them by cutting back on our dependance to oil. Unfortunately, that is a long-term goal, and doesn’t fix anything when an oil spill occurs in the present. This is why it is also important to know how oil spills are cleaned up.
As a county, it will be difficult to move away from oil dependence until the government and industry help shift our infrastructure and economy away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy resources. With that being said, there are still many ways for individuals to less our dependence on dirty fuels: write a letter to the President, drive less, keep your car in good running order, say no to plastic, eat less processed foods, think locally, weatherize your home, use alternate sources of energy, watch what you wear, update your cleaning products, change your personal care products, reduce waste, trim out beef and pork, seal and insulate your home, and make your electronics more efficient. It is also important to keep in mind that power plants (particularly those that burn coal), transportation, and energy use for homes and buildings are the primary sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Reliance on all of these factors results in the reliance of oil, and this heavy dependence has caused
many oil spills in the past. Here are some ways to clean up oil spills in water (11).
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OIL FILTER BOOMS
A filter boom captures floating oil quickly and can stop it from reaching the shore. They are around six-feet-long. Some are made with an Ultra-X-Tex material that absorbs oil much faster than standard polypropylene booms. This material allows water to pass through freely while filtering out any present oil on the surface of the water. These units have connecting hardware installed so that it’s easy to attach multiple units quickly in order to increase the length (15).
SOLUTIONS
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Almost all of these solutions are made possible because of Ultra-X-Tex, which is produced from recycled synthetic fibers. The fibers are processed into a lightweight mass with a large surface area that has the ability to allow water through while absorbing any oil (19).
Be the Change
8 Oil Spills / 2014
ULTRA-X-TEX
J. Casalnuovo
MICROBES