How can we remove 7 million tons of waste from the ocean?

“The history of man is basically a list of things that could not be done, and then they were done“, the motto of the young Boyan Slat, a nineteen year-old Dutch designer and inventor who has developed a project that could potentially have the ability to clean up the oceans, removing 7 tons of plastic that is currently in the oceans threatening entire ecosystems.

The vortex of plastic in the oceans is a major growing problem, and considered, until now, impossible to resolve. To change the mindset of the world, however, a young student of technology who is passionate about the environment and sustainability has designed a mechanism able to clean up.

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The project CleanUp Ocean Array is the name of the floating structure. It relies on the ability of long tentacles to capture the waste present in the ocean, taking advantage of the oceans currents. Whatever is collected is then directed towards platforms that collect and separate the plastic and recycle it.

The platforms also have a low environmental impact, separating the plankton from waste and releasing it back into the sea. By doing this you preserve what constitutes an invaluable resource for the life of fish and sea birds. In just five years, it could clean up a vortex of plastic without damaging the ecosystem: enough to allow hope to be able to clean up the oceans of 7 tons of plastic that infest the waters.

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The Ocean CleanUp Array could constitute a genuine ecological revolution, of which the most striking aspect is perhaps the author: Boyan Slat began working on the project at the beginning of his college career at Delft University of Technology, where he won the Best Technical Design 2012.

Slat then went on to develop this project, the biggest challenge now is to find the funding and the technical expertise to turn his vision into reality.

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