The machine will head towards the Pacific Trash Vortex, where it will begin collecting tonnes of plastic waste accumulated by ocean currents.
The vision of Boyan Slat has become reality. Five years have passed since Slat, barely nineteen years old, left his aerospace engineering studies to devote himself to his mission: cleaning the oceans of plastic. The Dutch prodigy founded the NGO Ocean Cleanup and designed a machine to collect plastic waste from the sea by harnessing ocean currents. Following a feasibility study and a successful fundraising campaign, the machine, called the Ocean Cleanup Array, is ready to be tested in the field. Within a few weeks the Ocean Cleanup Array will set sail from San Francisco, bound for the Pacific Trash Vortex — the great island of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. "The cleanup of the world's oceans is just around the corner," said an elated Slat.
The idea behind the Ocean Cleanup Array is simple and ingenious: the machine harnesses sea currents — the very same currents that led to the creation of the plastic island — to cause plastic waste to accumulate on the platforms, allowing the sea to clean itself "on its own." The system consists of a chain of floating barriers two kilometres in length, positioned with the current and without nets, which funnel plastic towards platforms that act as a funnel. Approximately once a month, a boat will collect the waste channelled towards the central section of the machine.
Boyan Slat's goal is to collect around 5,000 kilos of plastic during the first month of operation and to clear at least half of the Pacific Trash Vortex within five years. The environmental impact of the machine will be minimal: by harnessing the currents, it requires no energy to collect plastic. According to its creators, the Ocean Cleanup Array will pose no danger to marine animals, which will be able to pass beneath the floating barriers.
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The Ocean Cleanup Array's first mission represents a field test to evaluate the machine's performance and identify any issues before the project is scaled up. Ocean Cleanup has set itself the goal of installing sixty giant floating platforms in various areas of the planet by 2020.
The Pacific Trash Vortex is a colossal accumulation of floating rubbish, composed mostly of plastic; its surface area is greater than that of France, Germany and Spain combined and it contains at least 79,000 tonnes of plastic. "The majority of the debris is large in size," said Boyan Slat. "It is a ticking time bomb because all these large objects will turn into micro-debris in the coming decades if we do not act." The great plastic island consists primarily of abandoned fishing equipment, such as nets and ropes, and every year causes the death of thousands of whales, dolphins and seals.
Ocean Cleanup plans to finance itself through the sale of ocean plastic, which some brands, such as Adidas, have begun to exploit, recognising its appeal to consumers. However, cleaning the oceans, however effective, cannot be enough on its own; it is necessary to tackle at source the pollution that is slowly killing the world's seas, with serious consequences for our own species too. "We need to clean up, but we also need to prevent plastic from entering the oceans. Better recycling, better use of these materials in design creations, and regulation of this waste. We need to combine these solutions," declared Boyan Slat.
