Elleda Wilson: Cleaning up

Aug. 4—Young Dutch entrepreneur Boyan Slat always dreamed of cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and is now the founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, which has been experimenting with rigs that would enable him to reach his goal.

The current device is a half-mile long U-shaped barrier that traps plastic and debris as the barrier is pulled through the water slowly by two ships, one on either end. The ships collect the plastic gathered, which is brought back to shore for recycling.

"Since deployment in August 2021, System 002 (or 'Jenny') has now collected 101,353kg (223,445 pounds) of plastic over 45 extractions," Slat's latest press release says, "sweeping an area of ocean of over 3000km (1,864 miles) ..."

"Added to the 7,173kg (15,814 pounds) of plastic captured by our previous prototype systems, The Ocean Cleanup has now collected 108,526 kg (239,259 pounds) of plastic from the (Great Pacific Garbage Patch) — more than the combined weight of two and a half Boeing 737-800s, or the dry weight of a space shuttle!"

Slat theorizes that if they repeat the 100,000 kg plastic haul 1,000 times, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch will be cleaned up. "Right now," he added, "we're scaling up to the next phase in our cleanup with System 03," which is expected to pull in plastic at a rate "potentially 10 times higher than System 002." (Photos: The Ocean Cleanup)