We had to share this exciting news! Even though we believe that the solution to keep the oceans clean is not only by cleaning up, but also by avoiding plastic, we’re big fans of the “Ocean Cleanup“.

The Ocean Cleanup is a Dutch non-profit organization developing advanced technologies to rid the oceans of plastic. today they announced that its latest ocean cleanup prototype system – System 001/B – is successfully capturing and collecting plastic debris.

After one year of testing, the project has succeeded in developing a self-contained system in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that is using the natural forces of the ocean to passively catch and concentrate the plastic. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the largest accumulation zone of plastic in the world’s oceans. In addition to collecting plainly visible pieces of plastic debris, as well as much larger ghost nets associated with commercial fishing, the latest system has also successfully captured microplastics as small as 1mm.

The Mission Continues

With new learnings and experience derived from the successful deployment of System 001/B, The Ocean Cleanup will now begin to design its next ocean cleanup system, System 002; a full-scale cleanup system that is able to both endure and retain the collected plastic for long periods of time.

Once fully operational, The Ocean Cleanup will return plastic to land for recycling. Timing of that phase of the mission is contingent upon further testing and design iteration.

For more information about The Ocean Cleanup, please visit: theoceancleanup.com