Two words: keep dreaming! Or in this case, dream big, and follow your dreams. That is that the Ocean Cleanup initiative, by a young Dutch student from Delft is all about. Bryan Slate is only 20 years old and already working a couple years on this huge project to cleanup all the oceans.

The project turned to crowdfunding to raise the first round of cash. With succes. “After completion, US$ 2,154,282 had been raised, making it ‘the most successful non-profit crowd funding campaign in history’, according to crowd funding platform ABN AMRO’s SEEDS, who facilitated the campaign.“

 

The Problem

Quoted from the Ocean Cleanup website: “About 8 million tons of plastic enters the ocean each year (Jambeck et al., 2015). Part of this accumulates in 5 areas where currents converge: the gyres. At least 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic are currently in the oceans (Eriksen et al., 2014), a third of which is concentrated in the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch (Cózar et al., 2014). This plastic pollution continues to do the following damage in the ages to come.”

Well, that is a lot of plastic! The numbers are mind blowing, the damage it does to environment are unimaginable. On of the problems is, is that the oceans are no one’s responsibility. No government is responsible and you have no idea where the plastic actually comes from, so you cannot blame to polluters either.

The Solution

So what do they plan to do? They are planning to use the natural movements of the ocean, to drive all the floating garbage in a big net. They have conducted the first successful tests and are currently doing further tests at the great pacific garbage patch in the middle of the pacific ocean.

One of the tests they do, is to find out how deep below the surface the plastic is floating. This is important to know for the final design of the garbage catch.

 

As well, they are sailing from Hawaii to Los Angeles with a 30 vessels parole to measure the total amount of plastic floating there. You can see at the video below the trajectory they are following.

Ocean Cleanup Explained

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IjaZ2g-21E

Related reading

Of course this initiative is not the first. Nor will it be the last. Cleaning up the oceans has been discussed for many years. Both on a large scale, as well as on a small scale for people at home.

This book describes 50 ways you and i can do today to prevent further problems in the ocean. From what fish you can eat and which ones you should avoid to where you should go on holiday.

Buy 50 ways to save the ocean at Amazon now!

Follow the progress

As the Ocean Cleanup will continue, well will follow their progress. So come back regularly to to read what is going on with our precious oceans!