The Ocean Cleanup continues its remarkable mission

Extraordinary recovery of plastic from the Pacific: there is 16 tons less waste on the largest floating island in the world. The credit goes to The Ocean Cleanup, which intends to do even better by breaking new records

The extraordinary work of The Ocean Cleanup, dedicated to removing plastic waste from the world’s most polluted waterways and oceans, shows no signs of slowing down.

Tackling the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Once again, The Ocean Cleanup has targeted the Pacific Ocean, specifically the notorious Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This vast accumulation of plastic debris, composed of old fishing nets, buoys, bottles, and containers, is the largest floating island of trash in the world.

From this floating landfill, The Ocean Cleanup has removed an impressive 16 metric tons (about 35,273 pounds) of waste. The images documenting this massive ocean cleanup operation are striking, highlighting the vast quantity of plastic retrieved.

Transforming waste into sustainable products

The collected plastic will never return to pollute these or other waters. Instead, it will be recycled and transformed into sustainable, long-lasting products, ensuring it stays out of the oceans.

So far, over 345 metric tons (approximately 760,594 pounds) of plastic have been extracted from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This staggering amount is more than twice the weight of the Statue of Liberty. Despite this significant achievement, it still represents only a small fraction of the total plastic present in this artificial island.

Ambitious goals for 2024

For 2024, the foundation has set an ambitious goal: to remove 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of plastic per hour from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch using their System 03, a high-efficiency waste collection device. Last year, System 03 achieved a peak collection rate of 165 pounds (75 kilograms) per hour, indicating progress in the right direction.

Enhancing efficiency

To meet this goal, it is essential to enhance the performance of System 03, making it more efficient.

The Ocean Cleanup has already demonstrated this approach in Guatemala’s Rio Motagua, where they deployed the new Interceptor system. This barrier prevents what has become a river of trash from reaching the open sea.

Source: theoceancleanup/Instagram