First plastics finally picked up in Pacific by The Ocean Cleanup

#Ocean cleanup #plastic garbage #Boyan Slat

Since the launch of his idea in 2012 former student at the Delft University of technology Boyan Slat has been working around the clock to develop a system to collect plastic waste from the Pacific garbage patch. On 2 October Slat officially announced that his non-profit organisation The Ocean Cleanup is now fully capturing and collecting plastic debris.

Extended cork line and U-shaped floating barrier of Ocean Cleanup in Pacific Ocean

The extended yellow cork line holds an underwater screen that catches the plastic. The black pipe in the back is the U-shaped floating boom that holds the cork line. (photo: The Ocean Cleanup)

Testing in high seas

According to Slat the current prototype system 001/B is now successfully capturing and collecting plainly visible pieces of plastic debris, as well as much larger ghost nets associated with commercial fishing. The system has surprisingly also captured micro plastics as small as 1mm.

Launched from Vancouver in June, System 001/B is The Ocean Cleanup’s second attempt to prove its concept of collecting garbage from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the largest accumulation zone of plastic in the world’s oceans.

‘After beginning this journey seven years ago’, said Slat, ‘this first year of testing in the unforgiving environment of the high seas strongly indicates that our vision is attainable and that the beginning of our mission to rid the ocean of plastic garbage, which has accumulated for decades, is within reach.’

First plastic waste is collected aboard the supply vessel

The first plastic waste is lifted aboard the support vessel. (photo: The Ocean Cleanup)

Parachute sea anchor

The aim of System 001/B was to trial modifications to be able to correct the drift of the U-shaped floating barrier that traps the plastics. This is made possible with a parachute sea anchor, allowing for faster-moving plastic debris to float into the system. But still one problem remained. The collected plastic overtopped the under screen that is attached to a floating cork line. By extending the cork line the final design problem has now also been solved.

Next step: full scale

‘The mission continues’, said Slat and he announced the development of a full scale system. ‘Despite the early success of System 001/B, there is still much work to do. With new learnings and experience derived from the successful deployment of System 001/B, The Ocean Cleanup will now begin to design its full scale System 002 that is able to both endure and retain the collected plastic for long periods of time’.

Full recording of the press presentation (42 min. - starting at 7 min.) by the team of The Ocean Cleanup at the head office in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on 2 October.

This news item was originally published on the website of The Ocean Cleanup