DELFT, NETHERLANDS — A Dutch group aiming to rid the oceans of plastic junk has announced it will begin efforts to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by 2018, two years earlier than originally intended.
The organization, Ocean Cleanup, was founded by 22-year-old Boyan Slat. According to the group’s website, they will use trash collectors in the form of curved booms and screens, which are suspended by anchors floating in deep water.
The system will act like an artificial coastline, catching plastic debris as it drifts on the surface or just below the water.
Once full, a vessel empties the system and transports the collected plastic to land for processing and recycling.
The group plans to deploy up to 50 systems, and expects to collect 50 percent of the trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in just five years.
In their latest press release, Ocean Cleanup said the first pilot parts are now in production and will be tested off the U.S. West Coast by year’s end.
