DEVICE LAUNCHED TO REMOVE PLASTIC FROM THE PACIFIC

Scientists are set to launch a device they hope will clean up the 80,000 tonnes of plastic loating in an area of the Paciic Ocean. System 001, developed Ocean Cleanup, has begun its journey to the Great

Paciic Garbage Patch from San Francisco after years in development.

The 600 metre long machine uses tidal patterns to loat into areas of high plastic concentration, creating a horseshoe-shaped barrier to trap debris which can later be collected and recycled. If successful, Ocean Cleanup, the brainchild of Dutch inventor Boyan Slat, wants to launch a leet of similar systems to remove around half of plastic trapped in the vortex over the next ive years. Located roughly halfway between Hawaii and the coast of California, the Great Paciic Garbage Patch is the largest accumulation of ocean plastics in the world.

The trap, formed by circulating currents, is thought to contain 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic and now covers an area the size of France.