It all started with a simple question, one of those that make you laugh and think together: “Why can’t we just collect the floating plastic?” It was who did it more than ten years ago Boyan Slatthen eighteen year old Dutch, now an engineer, inventor and a bit of a visionary. From that question it was born The Ocean Cleanupa project that got half the world talking because it promised to clean up the oceans without nets, boats or divers.
The idea was as ambitious as it was crazy: to build a 600 meter long floating barrierU-shaped, capable of capture waste dragged by the currents. No motors, no pumps: the system moves Together to the plastic, takes it to a collection area and then holds it until a ship brings it to land.
In 2019 the first real test, in Great Pacific Garbage Patchthe immense “island” of garbage between California and Hawaii. Newspapers have dubbed it “the vacuum cleaner of the oceans”. Too bad you don’t aspire to anything at all.
How it works
In practice, it is about a floating tube filled with air connected to one net that hangs underwater for about three meters. The current pushes the waste against the barrier, which channels it towards the center of the structure.
From there, they are collected and brought to the mainland, where they are sorted and sent for recycling.
Simple? On paper, yes. In reality, much less. The first prototypes broke, then others arrived, more robust and more efficient. Today the project is still in the testing phasebut the results are encouraging: thousands of tons of plastic already recovered only in the Pacific.
It is not a magical system, it is not autonomous and cannot clean up all the world’s oceans on its own, but – and here it must be said – it is one of the few initiatives concrete that are really working.
The other half of the plan: stop plastic before it reaches the sea
The Ocean Cleanup doesn’t just work on the high seas. Another part of the project is called Interceptors: automated boats that they block plastic in riversbefore it ends up in the ocean. Because yes, 90% of marine waste comes from there.
These vessels are already operational in several countries, including Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Dominican Republic. In practice, a system of floating traps for bottles, bags and microplasticspowered by solar energy and managed remotely.
Viral posts on social media talk about an “ocean vacuum cleaner” capable of sucking up all the plastic in the world. It’s not like that. The Ocean Cleanup is an ongoing project, . It works, but it doesn’t solve the problem. It removes what is already floating — and that’s enough to make a difference — but the real solution remains to reduce plastic production.
Yet, there is something good: since Boyan Slat put his first prototype into the sea, the topic of plastic in the oceans has become popular. The images of the barrier sliding on the water have done more for environmental awareness than a thousand advertising campaigns.
The Ocean Cleanup isn’t perfect, but it’s real. It is a human project, in the most beautiful sense of the term: full of errors, attempts and obstinacy. And while it won’t clean up all the oceans on its own, it is teaching the world something crucial: that we can no longer afford to stand still and watch.
On Ocean Clean Up and the story of Boyan Slat:
