BOOM TO CORRAL PLASTIC LITTER

The system was created by The Ocean Cleanup, an organisation founded by Boyan Slat, a 24-year-old innovator from the Netherlands. Boyan became passionate about cleaning the oceans at age 16 after seeing more plastic bags than fish while scuba diving in the Mediterranean Sea.

Pierre AUGIER for The OCEAN CLEANUP

Researchers with Slat’s organisation found plastic going back to the 1960s and 1970s bobbing in the garbage patch, illustrating how persistent plastic is in the environment.

The buoyant, U-shaped barrier with a tapered 3m-deep screen is intended to act like a coastline, trapping some of the 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic that scientists estimate swirl around in the North Pacific gyre. Marine life can safely swim beneath it.

A support vessel will fish out the collected plastic every few months and transport it to dry land where it will be recycled.


The Ocean Cleanup, which has raised millions in donations to fund the project, including from Salesforce. com chief executive Marc Benioff and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, intends to deploy 60 free-floating barriers in the Pacific Ocean by 2020.

“One of our goals is to remove 50% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in five years,” Slat said.

Advertisement

The free-floating barriers are made to withstand harsh weather conditions and constant wear and tear. If everything goes to plan, they will stay in the water for 20 years, collecting 90% of the rubbish in the patch.

Not everyone is convinced the booms will work, however, pointing out that even if plastic rubbish can be taken out of the ocean, a lot more is pouring in each year.

www.oceancleanup.com