Ocean Cleanup, System 001

"The plastic is really persistent, and it doesn't go away by itself and the time to act is now."
"We still have to prove the technology -- which will then allow us to scale up a fleet of systems."
"One of our goals is to remove 50 percent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in five years."
"I'm the first to acknowledge this has never been done before and that it is important to collect plastic on land and close the taps on plastic entering into the ocean, but I also think humanity can do more than one thing at a time to tackle this problem."
Boyan Slat, 24, Netherlands innovator, founder, The Ocean Cleanup

"We at the Ocean Conservancy are highly skeptical but we hope it works. The ocean needs all the help it can get."
"If you don't stop plastics from flowing into the ocean, it will be a Sisyphean task [to rescue oceans from the unstoppable flood of waste plastics]."
"He [Boyan Slat and Ocean Cleanup] has set a very large and lofty goal, and we certainly hope it works, but we really are not going to know until it is deployed."
"We have to wait and see."
George Leonard, chief scientist, Ocean Conservancy

The Ocean Cleanup System

According to George Leonard, eight tonnes of plastic waste annually enters the ocean, crying out for a purposeful approach to solve the issue, beginning with the obvious; to shield the ocean from plastic entering it to begin with. He is convinced that educating the public to the critical element of recognizing the need to use less plastic, recycle and reuse plastic in favour of simply discarding it in vulnerable environments is to convince that it is everyone's responsibility. Single-use plastic containers and bottles are a scourge.

The annual International Coastal Cleanup scheduled for September 15 sponsored by Ocean Conservancy alerts people to the issue and succeeds in mustering sufficient interest in evoking a personal sense of mission that an anticipated million volunteers worldwide plan to gather trash from beaches and waterways in a group effort mounted by the non-profit environmental advocacy group.  Last year's Coastal Cleanup saw roughly 10,000 tonnes of plastics collected globally over a two-hour period of intensive activity.

The Ocean Cleanup has even greater, more ambitious aspirations for cleaning up the ocean, beginning with a plan to deploy a long floating boom to net plastic litter in the ocean between California and Hawaii, in a trial run to clean up the largest garbage patch in the heart of the Pacific Ocean. A floating boom 600-metres in length is being towed to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch from San Franscisco. This system was created by The Ocean Cleanup.

If the pilot project is a success, Slat plans to launch a bigger system to tackle the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. (Photo: The Ocean Cleanup)

The barrier itself, buoyant and shaped like a giant U with a tapered three-metre-deep screen is intended to emulate a coastline to trap as much of the 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic as possible that science estimates whirls about in  giant gyre. The design is meant to ensure that ocean animals won't be caught within the net, but can escape it by swimming beneath the screen. The giant device is fitted with solar power lights, cameras, sensors and satellite antennae.

The system is programmed to communicate its position at all times so support vessels are able to cull out collected plastic every few months to transport their 'catch' to dry land where it will undergo recycling. All the plastic refuse scooped out by the system will be dumped into shipping containers for collection and when full, returned to land. Whether the system will prove to be as efficient as hoped, and is able to withstand harsh conditions will be determined over time.

Donations to fund the project came from a multitude of sources, the most notable perhaps and substantial from the founder of PayPal and from Salesforce.com. Success of this pilot project will determine whether an additional dozens of free-floating barriers can proceed to cleanse the Pacific Ocean substantially by 2020. Designed to withstand harsh weather conditions and continual wear and tear, the barriers will remain in the water for several decades, expected during that period to collect 90 percent of the patch's trash.

Of primary concern is that marine animals and other wildlife not be trapped by entanglement in the net that hangs below the ocean's surface. Mr. Slat points out that the system employs a screen instead of a net to ensure that animals will not become entangled in a net-like device. And that a boat with experienced marine biologists will venture out for regular forays to inspect the device, ensuring that no animals do come to harm.

The Ocean Cleanup