NUMBER CRUNCH

The numbers behind the big tech news

NUMBER OF TONS OF PLASTIC IN THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH BEING TARGETED BY THE OCEAN CLEANUP PROJECT. The aim is to use a high tech, U-shaped boom, dubbed the Ocean Cleanup System 001, to trawl for plastic as small as 1mm without harming local marine life. The Project’s clean-up efforts are a veritable drop in the ocean, however. It’s estimated that nine million tonnes of plastic end up in our oceans each year.