Our Journey Begins with Cleaning Up Plastics
Today, trillions of pieces of plastic pollute our oceans and rivers causing damage to the marine ecosystem, people and the planet. The Ocean Cleanup has been researching, monitoring and developing the technologies to extract plastic pollution from oceans and intercept ocean-bound plastic in rivers with the mission to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. We do this today in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) with System 03. This plastic extraction system consists of a 2.2km long floating barrier towed between two vessels during trips which last 6 weeks. The plastic is driven into a retention zone which is finally emptied aboard on the vessels. The retention zone is then re-attached in place and the cleanup continues.