The Ocean Cleanup

A campaign to rid the sea of plastic waste

Calling itself ‘the largest clean up in history’, this project aims to develop environmentally friendly, large-scale, and efficient removal of plastic pollution from aquatic ecosystems. Founded by Dutch environmentalist Boyan Slat after he encountered more plastic bags than fish while diving in Greece at the age of 16, the proposal takes the form of a network of floating barriers which cause natural currents to push plastics towards a central platform, allowing for efficient extraction and storage of concentrated plastic for transportation to land. The Ocean Cleanup recently raised over US$2 million through a crowd funding campaign, which the organisation plans to use for the construction and testing of large-scale operational pilots.