Annually, about 300 million tons of plastic are created worldwide. About half of the plastic made will only be used once. As a result of not reusing plastic items or not using disposable items, approximately eight million tons of plastic enter the world’s oceans and rivers annually. Currently, there are an estimated 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic floating around in the oceans. This affects all marine life by contaminating and entangling all types of animals. The most common example may include the six-ring plastic can holder. Animals such as turtles, seagulls, seals, penguins have all been found with this plastic wrapped around their necks. The negligence of humans has resulted in intense pollution and endangering wildlife.
So, how could we possibly solve this everlasting problem of polluting our waters? One young, Dutch inventor, Boylan Slat, sought of an idea to clean the ocean from surface pollution. At 18, Boyan founded The Ocean Cleanup non-profit organization. Because of his inventions and successful organization, Boyan was awarded Champion of the Earth in 2015, the Young Entrepreneurship Award in 2015, and the European of the Year in 2017.
The Ocean Cleanup’s main goal is to rid the already polluted areas of the ocean and to stop plastic from entering the oceans via rivers. They target the large collections of plastic, known as a gyre, that has been picked up by a current. This provides an easy pick of up mass objects and allows the broken down particles to be cleaned before marine animals mistake it for food. Instead of using nets to manually collect trash from these large currents, The Ocean Cleanup created an innovative way to collect plastic. They created a fleet system that goes with the currents to catch plastic. According to their statistics, they are estimated to remove fifty percent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch every five years. Eventually, they will expand to the trash patches located in the other parts of the ocean as well.
In addition, The Ocean Cleanup invented The Interceptor. This structure is 100% solar-powered and its main purpose is to restrict trash from entering the ocean. They place The Interceptor at many large rivers in order to catch the trash. Their plans are to place The Interceptor at over 1,000 of the world’s most polluted rivers in hopes to remove about 90% of the ocean’s trash by the year 2040.
The Ocean Cleanup organization gives people hope for the future. If more innovative organizations come together to tackle the longing issue of pollution and ocean pollution, then maybe one day we could rid the ocean from the trash. Everyone must work together to strive for a more sustainable lifestyle to help keep our beautiful planet clean and healthy.
I had never heard of the Ocean Cleanup organization before, but this is truly encouraging and inspiring! They are not just cleaning the oceans as they are, but they are also working to reduce the amount of pollution entering the ocean (targeting the source of the problem). I love how innovative they are with technology, and I certainly hope they can achieve their ambitious goals of removing half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and removing 90% of ocean trash in 20 years!