Every year, millions of tons of plastic enter the oceans, of which the majority spills out from rivers. A portion of this plastic travels to ocean garbage patches, getting caught in a vortex of circulating currents. If no action is taken, the plastic will increasingly impact our ecosystems, health, and economies.
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Masses of washed up plastic on a beach in Punta Cana.
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Solving it requires a combination of closing the source and cleaning up what has already accumulated in the ocean and doesn’t go away by itself.
The Ocean Cleanup is developing a passive cleanup method, which uses the natural oceanic forces to rapidly and cost-effectively clean up the plastic already in the oceans. With a full fleet of cleanup systems in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, they aim to clean up 50% of its plastic every five years.
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Accumulated plastic in the Ocean Cleanup's system.
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They have also developed the first scalable solution to efficiently intercept plastic in rivers before it reaches the oceans. By placing Interceptors in 1000 strategic locations in rivers around the world, they aim to halt 80% of plastic from entering the oceans in five years’ time.
The Ocean Cleanup, a non-profit organisation, is developing advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. Dutch inventor Boyan Slat founded The Ocean Cleanup at the age of 18 in his hometown of Delft, the Netherlands.
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Copyright for all images: The Ocean Cleanup
Text source: The Ocean Cleanup