15:12 15 December 2019
Ocean Cleanup system captured first plastic from Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The Ocean Cleanup, a non-profit organization of Boyan Slat (aged 25), collected the first rubbish via their system to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a trash-filled vortex in the Pacific Ocean that's more than twice the size of Texas. The group has brought some of that trash back to shore for the first time, hauling 60 bags of plastic debris into Vancouver.
"We actually have the first plastic back on land. It fills me with a lot of pride and joy,” Slat said at a press conference on Thursday and added that this stuff has been in the ocean likely for decades.
The Ocean Cleanup intends to recycle the collected plastic and turn it into some kind of product. However, it is not yet known, which items will be produced. Slat said the team hoped to start selling them by September 2020.
