Is there anything we can do about the huge and increasing amount of plastic garbage in our oceans? The non-profit project Pacific Garbage Screening offers a visionary concept for this challenge. The basis of their idea is a platform floating on the water. Its special construction allows to filter plastic particles by inverted sedimentation. Nets or other filter systems, which could endanger ocean life, are not necessary. Furthermore, the floating plastic waste is converted into energy and biodegradable plastics. Marcella Hansch is an architect and founder of the green non-profit start-up Pacific Garbage Screening e.V.
For her engagement and her innovative project, Marcella won the “25 Women Award – Women, whose inventions change our lives” of the magazine EDITION F in 2017, the German federal award “EcoDesign – young talent” in 2016, and was nominated for the GreenTec Award and the Querdenker (“Lateral Thinkers”) Award in 2014.
As an architect, Marcella is working for the office Carpus + Partner AG in Aachen, after having worked for architectural offices in Vienna and Arnsberg.
Marcella studied architecture at the RWTH in Aachen. Her master’s thesis was about the Pacific Garbage Screening project, and she still receives support from the RWTH Aachen to realize it.
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