By Lizzie, Fall 2022.

Of the five major gyres (spiral vortexes in the ocean) on Earth, the North Pacific is the largest and most notorious. Nicknamed the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” (GPGP), it’s “great” for a reason: this pile of plastic halfway between Hawaii and California covers 20 million square kilometers of ocean, about three times the size of France. The GPGP is estimated to contain around 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic, and has been growing exponentially since its discovery by Charles Moore in 1997 [1].

While around 20% of this plastic comes from marine expeditions like fishing and shipping, 80% originates from everyday waste on land, traveling down rivers and accruing in the Pacific Ocean [2]. Plastic is non-biodegradable, and does not dissolve in the ocean, but rather breaks down into smaller pieces called “microplastic,” which harm marine life and the surrounding ecosystems. Fish and birds often eat them, mistaking microplastics for food, later dying of either indigestion or starvation, if they aren’t first caught in fishing nets floating through the waves [3]. These problems not only affect marine life, but make their way up the food chain to humans, as the chemicals in plastic that fish ingest are inevitably ingested later by unsuspecting customers at a seafood restaurant.

Obvious solutions like garbage-collection ships are complicated and expensive to operate, not to mention inefficient. According to the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with the simplest technology, it would take 67 ships a whole year to clean up just 1% of the garbage, which is far less than the GPGP’s growth rate. We would never catch up [2]. To make things harder, the GPGP is in international waters, meaning no one country is responsible for its cleanup. Therefore, the task falls on non-profit, international organizations. Enter: The Ocean Cleanup.

While many organizations have invested money in research and prevention methods for GPGP, like NOAA and Algalita (founded by the discoverer of the GPGP, Charles Moore), The Ocean Cleanup project has made the most impressive progress towards the cleanup of the garbage patch itself. Founded in 2013 in the Netherlands by 18-year-old and future Thiel Fellow Boyan Slat, The Ocean Cleanup has been the front-runner for ocean cleanup for the past nine years.

While the organization started by applying new technology including artificial barriers and conveyor belt interceptors in rivers to prevent new plastic from reaching the open ocean, in 2018, they reached unprecedented ground by launching a 4-month-long expedition in the Pacific Ocean called “System 001,” the first in the world of its kind [4]. The two-vessel contraption consisted of a net of sorts called the “retention zone” where plastic accumulates, at the center of two “wings” (long barriers connected to the two leading vessels), creating a large U-shaped system (see Figure 1). Improved versions of this technology, System 001/B and the current System 002 launched in 2019 and 2021, respectively. The organization made rapid technological progress, improving plastic retention rates and maneuverability to increase efficiency. The cherry on top: The Ocean Cleanup developed a program to convert the collected plastic into sunglasses using a vaporization method, so the plastic doesn’t end up back in the ocean.

Though 002 is still the current system in place for The Ocean Cleanup, a new System 03 has been in the works for over a year, with technological improvements to be slowly incorporated into current expeditions. System 03 will present the largest technological jump and greatest accomplishment by allowing for partially staffed –and even un-manned–crews, reducing the cost of expeditions. This, combined with a larger retention zone, make an incredible difference in efficiency; where before, it would take 50 vessels to clean up the GPGP, it could now take only 10.

As amazing as the effort on the ocean front is, the GPGP is still growing exponentially each year, as humans continue to utilize single-use plastics. It is a common misconception that most of the GPGP comes from the commercial fishing industry. In reality, objects like fishing lines and nets comprise only about 20% of the marine pollution. The other 80% travels from land waste, through rivers and out to sea, where the current collects them in these gyres [2]. Whether we put recyclable plastic in the landfill and the wind carries it to a nearby stream, rainwater washes litter on the street into the river, or trash flushed into our pipes gets deposited into the lake, parts of our waste always make their way into the oceans somehow [5].

The next step for not only The Ocean Cleanup, but other environmental NGOs, is “scaling up.” This means applying the same technology The Ocean Cleanup did with Systems 002 and 03 to other gyres around the globe. If we can apply this technology starting in the next year, estimates say that 90% of all marine plastic could be reduced by 2040 [4]. However, the burden of this work does not just fall on organizations like The Ocean Cleanup and NOAA. Reducing inflow is the first step to cleaning up these ocean ecosystems, if not for the ocean’s sake, then out of respect for the great technological advancements being made by non-profit organizations like The Ocean Cleanup. As shown in Figure 2, the solution requires a collaborative effort to reduce both the input and output sides of the problem. These technological advancements by organizations like The Ocean Cleanup must be matched by our own initiative to make those efforts worth it.

1. “The Story of Plastic.” Algalita, December 1, 2021. https://algalita.org/story-of-plastic/. 
2. “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” National Geographic Society, June 2, 2022. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/great-pacific-garbage-patch.  
3. Dianna.parker. “Garbage Patches: OR&R’s Marine Debris Program.” dianna.parker, July 11, 2013. https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.html.  
4. “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch • The Ocean Cleanup.” The Ocean Cleanup, September 6, 2022. https://theoceancleanup.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch/.  
5. Lebreton, L., B. Slat, F. Ferrari, B. Sainte-Rose, J. Aitken, R. Marthouse, S. Hajbane, et al. “Evidence That the Great Pacific Garbage Patch Is Rapidly Accumulating Plastic.” Nature News. Nature Publishing Group, March 22, 2018. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22939-w.