WRITTEN BY TEAM SOW
“Our aim is to put ourselves out of business once the oceans are clean.”
Over 1 million metric tons of plastic enters our oceans each year negatively impacting the environment, human health, and our world’s economics. The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization, developing and scaling technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic.
If you want to talk about a satisfying cleanup, check out The Ocean Cleanup’s social media and watch as millions of kilograms of trash is extracted with their revolutionary systems and technology. Full Disclosure: once you start scrolling it is incredibly difficult to stop.
Questions You Will Definitely Find Yourself Asking:
(All sourced directly from The Ocean Cleanup Website FAQs)
Can you rid the oceans of plastic entirely?
While removing every single piece of plastic from the oceans may not be possible, The Ocean Cleanup efforts significantly decrease the amount of floating debris in ocean’s by intercepting plastic in rivers, and cleaning what is already out there. Their goal is to remove 90% of floating ocean plastic by 2040.
Will these systems impact sea life?
The Ocean Cleanup takes great care and detail to incorporate mitigation measures that deter marine animals from interacting with the Interceptor system, installing intentional design efforts to create easy exit routes in case they do. Their latest System 03 has even introduced a Marine Animal Safety Hatch, which can activate to encourage any animal in the Retention Zone to exit, further limiting any chances for an animal to become trapped. While operating, they have dedicated Environmental Observers and crew to monitor the area and if necessary, can -and do- halt cleanup operations.
What happens to the plastic after extracting it?
The Ocean Cleanup works to give plastic collected from the ocean a new life by collaborating with partners who recycle and transform the plastics into repurposed, durable products. By recycling the collected ocean plastic into useful products that are made with certified plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Ocean Cleanup operational costs can, to a large extent, become financially self-sustainable.
