Pacific Garbage Patch next up

Dutch foundation aims to rid oceans of plastic trash

UTRECHT, Netherlands — A Dutch foundation aiming to rid the world’s oceans of plastic waste says it will start cleaning the huge area of floating junk known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch within the next 12 months, two years earlier than planned.

The Ocean Cleanup aims to use long-distance floating booms that act like coastlines to gather plastic as it drifts on or near the surface of the water while allowing sea life to pass underneath.

The plan originally was to anchor the barriers to the sea bed with a system used by oil rigs, but the organization said last week it will use anchors that float beneath the water’s surface, making it much more efficient.

The Ocean Cleanup, founded by Dutch university dropout Boyan Slat, said testing of the first system will start off the U.S. West coast by the end of the year, and barriers will be shipped to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between California and Hawaii in the first half of 2018.

The patch is a huge area of the ocean where swirling currents concentrate the trash.

“At the ocean cleanup we always work with nature. So instead of going after the plastic, we let the plastic come to us, saving time, energy and cost,” said Slat, a shaggy-haired 22-year-old.

Floating barriers concentrate the plastic garbage at a central point where it can be fished out of the water and shipped back to dry land for recycling.

The organization discovered that the barriers are more efficient if they are allowed to slowly drift instead of anchoring them to the sea bed.

Free-floating barriers begin to act like the plastic they aim to snare, so “the cleanup systems will automatically gravitate to those places where most plastic is,” Slat said.

The innovative system is the brainchild of Slat, who decided to dedicate himself to cleaning up the world’s oceans after he went scuba diving in Greece and saw more plastic bags than fish.

The young entrepreneur’s system is making waves among America’s super-rich philanthropists.

His foundation announced last month it had raised $21.7 million in donations since November, clearing the way for largescale trials at sea.

Nancy Wallace, director of the Marine Debris Program at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said much of the garbage in the oceans is found throughout the water column — at different depths. That would likely put some of it out of reach of Slat’s barriers.

But she applauded The Ocean Cleanup for bringing the issue to a broad public.

“The more people are aware of it, the more they will be concerned about it,” Wallace said.