The Massive Plastic-Cleaning Device Invented By a 25-Year-Old Is Finally Catching Trash In The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Humans have figured out amazing things and we can and will figure out how to clean up our planet. In fact, it’s already happening.

From Business Insider by Aria Bendix

It’s been six years since entrepreneur Boyan Slat began developing a system to rid the world’s oceans of harmful plastic. In 2013, Slat founded The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit that aims to remove plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a trash-filled vortex in the Pacific Ocean that’s more than twice the of Texas. Read the FULL ARTICLE HERE.

The group designed a device that passively collects plastic in its fold like a giant arm. But the system has hit several snags, including a design and manufacturing flaw that caused the plastic to spill back into the ocean.  More recently, plastic began flowing over the top of a cork line that helps stabilize the system.

But on Wednesday, The Ocean Cleanup announced that it has fixed that problem, and the device is now successfully capturing and retaining plastic debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

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