The Ocean Cleanup

The Ocean Cleanup
Formation2013; 11 years ago (2013)
Founded atDelft, Netherlands
TypeStichting
PurposeCleaning the oceans
HeadquartersRotterdam, Netherlands
Coordinates51°55′15″N 4°28′06″E / 51.92083°N 4.46833°E / 51.92083; 4.46833
Boyan Slat
Budget (2022)
€ 54.705 million [1]
Staff120[2]
Websitewww.theoceancleanup.com

The Ocean Cleanup is a nonprofit environmental engineering organization based in the Netherlands that develops technology to extract plastic pollution from the oceans and to capture it in rivers before it can reach the ocean. Their initial focus was on the Pacific Ocean and its garbage patch, and extended to rivers in countries including Indonesia, Guatemala, and the United States.

The Ocean Cleanup was founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat, a Dutch inventor[3][4][5] who serves as its CEO. It develops both ocean and river based catch systems. Its ocean system consists of a funnel shaped floating barrier which is towed by two ships. The ocean system is deployed in oceanic gyres to collect marine debris.[6] The project aims to launch 10 or more approximately 2 km-long (1.2 mi) systems which they predict could remove 50% of the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch five years from deployment.[7][8]

The river system consists of a variety of floating barriers which are anchored to the riverbank. The Ocean Cleanup also publishes scientific papers,[9][10][11][12] and estimates that "1% of worlds rivers (~1000 rivers) are responsible for 80% of the pollution in the world's seas".[13][14][15] They aim to deploy their river systems in these 1000 rivers.

As of August 2023, the organization has removed more than 15.8 million kilograms of trash from rivers and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.[16]

  1. ^ "The Ocean Cleanup - Annual Report 2022" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 December 2023.
  2. ^ About - The Ocean Cleanup Retrieved 2022-04-29.
  3. ^ "Hrvat Koji Čisti Oceane – Moj tata živi u Istri, a ja sam s ušteđevinom od 200 € ostvario san". jutarnji.hr. Archived from the original on 14 June 2018. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  4. ^ "Nizozemac hrvatskog podrijetla izumio sustav koji elimira plastični otpad iz mora". www.monitor.hr. Archived from the original on 13 April 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  5. ^ Wise, Jeff (9 October 2018). "This Thiel-Backed Startup Says It Can Clean Up the Seas. Scientists Have Doubts". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on 16 December 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  6. ^ "Into the Twilight Zone". The Ocean Cleanup. 16 August 2019. Archived from the original on 28 September 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  7. ^ Summers, Hannah (8 September 2018). "Scientists get ready to begin Great Pacific Garbage Patch cleanup". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2 November 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  8. ^ CNET (10 September 2018), The Ocean Cleanup launches to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, archived from the original on 7 January 2020, retrieved 2 November 2018
  9. ^ Cleanup, The Ocean. "The Ocean Cleanup Launches Mega Expedition, Largest Research Expedition In History". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Archived from the original on 12 March 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  10. ^ jason (27 July 2018). "The Ocean Cleanup Aerial Expedition [All You Need To Know]". International Air Response. Archived from the original on 28 September 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  11. ^ Chen, Qiqing (November 2017). "Pollutants in Plastics within the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre" (PDF). Environmental Science & Technology. 52 (2): 446–456. doi:10.1021/acs.est.7b04682. PMID 29185716.
  12. ^ Lebreton, L. (March 2018). "Evidence that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly accumulating plastic". Scientific Reports. 8 (1): 4666. Bibcode:2018NatSR...8.4666L. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-22939-w. PMC 5864935. PMID 29568057.
  13. ^ "Dutch foundation launches project to tackle river plastic pollution". news.yahoo.com. 26 October 2019. Archived from the original on 26 October 2019. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  14. ^ Rivers | The Interceptor, Explained | The Ocean Cleanup, 26 October 2019, archived from the original on 30 October 2019, retrieved 26 October 2019
  15. ^ Boyan Slat talks up his latest invention, The Interceptor, archived from the original on 31 October 2019, retrieved 25 October 2019
  16. ^ "Dashboard • The Ocean Cleanup". The Ocean Cleanup. Retrieved 8 August 2024.