Innovating conservation

1. Floating in the Pacific Ocean is a patch of garbage almost double the size of the Pacific’s largest island. This environmental horror, known appropriately as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is the result of human disposal of plastic into rivers and oceans. In fact, 8 million metric tons of plastic end up in the oceans every year. Some of this plastic debris travels long distances on ocean currents. At specific points across the globe, these currents come together to form enormous

   vortexes

   with calm centers. Currents deposit waste in these calm centers, creating enormous garbage patches, or

   gyres

   . Of the five garbage gyres in the world’s oceans, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest, measuring approximately 600,000 square miles.
2. Much of the waste in these gyres is made of plastic, which generally isn’t

   biodegradable

   . Over time, the plastics in these gyres break down into ever-smaller pieces—called “microplastics”—creating even worse problems for the oceans and their inhabitants. Smaller pieces of plastic are not only more challenging to remove from the ocean, they are also more likely to be mistaken as food by marine creatures. The effects of these gyres on human and marine life are significant, but scientists are working to develop new technologies to clean up the ocean.

Working toward a solution

3. One such scientist is Boyan Slat. At the age of 19, Slat founded the

   nonprofit

   The Ocean Cleanup, which uses technology to safely clean plastics out of the ocean ecosystem. The organization’s goal is to remove 90% of the ocean’s floating plastic by 2040.
4. Unfortunately, those trying to build cleanup systems have learned that scooping plastic out of the ocean isn’t a simple process. Nets can just as easily catch and kill marine life as plastic.
5. But Slat and his team at The Ocean Cleanup have developed an innovative solution that’s safer for marine life than many others, by building a plastic-gathering system with built-in protections for animals. So how does it work?

The Ocean Cleanup system

6. First, members of the organization use computer modeling to figure out where plastic hotspots will be. Hotspots are places with a higher

   concentration

   of plastic. Once team members have figured out where a hotspot will be, ships pull an enormous floating mesh net into position to capture the plastic.
7. The capture system has multiple protections for animals, including sounds designed to drive animals away from it and thus prevent them getting entangled in the first place. And there are several means of escape available for animals who get caught. The net has holes small enough to capture large quantities of plastic, but big enough to let small animals like plankton drift through. There are also slits throughout the net that allow larger creatures who become entangled to safely escape. And for animals who breathe air, there are spots where the net is raised above the ocean’s surface. Finally, emergency releases allow crew members to free any animal who has gotten trapped.

What happens to the captured plastic?

8. Once the cleanup system is full, it’s removed from the ocean and emptied onto a boat. This boat brings the plastic back to land, where it’s recycled into new products like sunglasses. These products are sold to help support the work of The Ocean Cleanup.

Steps in the right direction

9. As of August 2023, The Ocean Cleanup had removed over 600,000 pounds of plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and Slat and his team don’t plan to stop there. Currently, they are planning to transition from their second version of the cleanup system to a third version that is three times bigger. They’re expecting the new cleanup technology will allow them to remove more plastic from the ocean even faster.
10. It will take more people like Boyan Slat and groups like The Ocean Cleanup to help correct the issue of plastic pollution in the ocean, but Slat’s work represents a great first solution.