The Ocean Cleanup, the Dutch non-profit organization that’s trying to clean the waters offshore, just brought its first batch of plastic back from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Boyan Slat, the group’s founder and CEO, stood amid bags of plastic retrieved from the ocean when they were unloaded in Vancouver, British Columbia, to announce the successful catch.
The Ocean Cleanup got off to a rocky start in September, 2018, when its U-shaped floating collection system with a ten-foot skirt hanging underwater didn’t retrieve much of the plastic it was supposed to trap. The group made some changes in the design and went back to the Garbage Patch to try again. This time it worked.
“Welcoming the first catch of plastic on land is the moment we have been looking forward to for years,” Slat said. The plastic will be recycled into consumer products that the group will sell to fund future cleanup operations.
“I believe we can use this trash to turn a problem into a solution by transforming this unique material into a beautiful product,” Slat said. “As most people will never go to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, through these products we aim to give everyone the opportunity to take part in the cleanup.”
The Ocean Cleanup is now planning to deploy its second redesign, called System 002, as a “key stepping stone” to a large cleanup of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The patch is a gyre of trash between California and Hawaii, with 1.8 trillion pieces of garbage, including 87,000 tons of plastic; it is three times the size of France. Read more:
