We can convert the GPGP into fuel stock!

There is a process that converts plastic and most other trash we're likely to find in the Great Garbage Patch into fuel stock that can be refined into fuel.

It's called "Thermal Depolymerization", or TDP, and it breaks down the long-chain molecules of plastic and other material into short-chain hydrocarbons suitable for use as fuel.

The fuel produced exceeds the input requirements for the process itself by an attractive margin. To quote the Wikipedia article:

If one considers the energy content of the feedstock to be free (i.e., waste material from some other process), then 85 units of energy are made available for every 15 units of energy consumed in process heat and electricity. This means the "Energy Returned on Energy Invested" (EROEI) is (6.67), which is comparable to other energy harvesting processes. Higher efficiencies may be possible with drier and more carbon-rich feedstocks, such as waste plastic.

And, it can convert most of the hazardous materials afloat in the patch into useful, relatively non-toxic chemical "stock". Again from the Wikipedia article:

The process breaks down almost all materials that are fed into it. TDP even efficiently breaks down many types of hazardous materials, such as poisons and difficult-to-destroy biological agents such as prions.

Once we have converted the trash into fuel, we can burn it for heat and [other] energy, passing the exhaust through "bio-scrubbers", algae filled solar tubes that can remove the carbon dioxide. I suspect that with the help of Living Machine designs we should be able to remove other pollutants too.

We can also convert the fuel stock into fertilizer. Granted, this is not Organic Farming, but in the middle of the Pacific Ocean any foodstuff would be valuable, even if it was merely "thrown away", so to speak, into the oceanic food chain. Surely it's better for the plankton to munch on junkfood than choke on indigestible plastic? Or we can feed the nutrient slurry to organisms living in our Living Machines and convert it eventually into, who knows? Bamboo for structural material? Coconut? Sugar cane or beets for processing into sugar or alcohol fuel? Once it's no longer rude poison the sky's the limit.

Hang on, stay with me, we can make new plastic out of it. That's right. You can burn it, turn it into fertilizer, or reprocess it into new plastic, of course biodegradable from the start this time, and make things out of it.

We can make new barges and boats, floating islands, Dymaxion truss greenhouses and more conversion "factories". I want to create a self-replicating trash-eating system, mimicking Nature and producing life and growth and health from inert matter and sludge. That's a good way to tackle the GPGP: turn it into life!

TPD will be an integral part of the "metabolism" that we'll use to digest the plastic bolus of the patch.