Plastic Patrol

Out in the middle  of the Pacific Ocean,  1.8 trillion pieces of plastic are caught in a swirling vortex of ocean currents. This plastic wasteland, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, covers an area nearly twice the size of Texas. It contains an estimated 88,000 tons of floating trash—the result of decades of pollution.

The Ocean Cleanup project is on a mission to collect this trash, using a new technology called 001/B. The system was first proposed in 2013 by Dutch inventor Boyan Slat, then just 18 years old. It has a long, U-shaped tube, or boom, that floats on the ocean’s surface. Attached underneath is a net that stretches 10 feet underwater, collecting pieces of plastic as small as 1 millimeter. (In tests, no animals have been caught in the net, but they are monitoring its safety for wildlife.) The system is passive, so it uses no energy. Instead, it’s pushed around by ocean currents.

Out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic are caught in swirling ocean currents. This place is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It covers an area nearly twice the size of Texas. It contains an estimated 88,000 tons of floating trash, the result of decades of pollution.

The Ocean Cleanup project is on a mission to collect this trash. The project is using a new technology called 001/B. The system was first proposed in 2013 by Dutch inventor Boyan Slat, who was just 18 years old at the time. It has a long, U-shaped tube, or boom, that floats on the ocean’s surface. Attached underneath is a net that stretches 10 feet underwater. The net collects pieces of plastic as small as 1 millimeter. (In tests, no animals have been caught in the net. But the project is monitoring the net’s safety for wildlife.) The system is pushed around by ocean currents. That means it doesn’t need fuel to work.

Slat and his colleagues spent years perfecting the technology. Several test runs failed, and critics have argued that Slat’s goal to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is impossible. But 001/B successfully captured its first batch of plastic last October. The group is now working on ways to recycle the ocean waste.

Because the 001/B system “acts like the plastic” and travels with the ocean currents, “it passes through areas where the plastic concentration is higher than average,” says an Ocean Cleanup representative. “Our computer models indicate that a full fleet of 001/B systems could recover about 50 percent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in five years.”

Slat and his colleagues spent years perfecting the technology. Several of their test runs failed.  Some people have also argued that Slat’s goal to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is impossible. But last October, 001/B successfully captured its first batch of plastic. The group is now working on ways to recycle it.

The 001/B system works by floating on ocean currents, just like plastic trash does. That means “it passes through areas where the plastic concentration is higher than average,” says an Ocean Cleanup representative. The company says that a group of 001/B systems working together could clean up about 50 percent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in five years.

As much as 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters the oceans every year. More than half is light enough to float. It eventually gets caught in gyres, systems of circulating ocean currents, hundreds of miles from land. Animals get tangled in the debris or eat it, mistaking it for food.

There are a total of five floating garbage patches across the globe: one in the Indian Ocean, two in the Atlantic, and two in the Pacific. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is believed to be the largest, containing roughly 250 pieces of plastic for every human on the planet! Slat and his colleagues hope their new technology could help to clean up the world’s oceans by 2040.

Every year, as much as 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters the oceans. More than half of it is light enough to float. It eventually gets caught in swirling ocean currents hundreds of miles from land. Animals get tangled in the debris or eat it because they think it looks like food.

There are five floating garbage patches around the globe. One is in the Indian Ocean, two are in the Atlantic, and two are in the Pacific. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is believed to be the largest. It contains about 250 times more pieces of plastic than there are humans on the planet! Slat and his colleagues hope their new technology can help to clean up the world’s oceans by 2040.