Huge Device Aims to Capture Pacific Ocean’s Plastic Garbage

Engineers have launched a huge garbage collection device to gather plastic material floating in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. The plastic makes up what is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is the world’s largest spread of garbage, at two times the size of the state of Texas.

The organization Ocean Cleanup created the collection device. The group’s founder is Boyan Slat, a 24-year-old inventor from the Netherlands. Slat was just 16 years old when he was moved to clean up the oceans. He had been on a scuba dive in the Mediterranean Sea and saw more plastic bags than fish. The problem has only grown since. “The plastic is really persistent and it doesn’t go away by itself and the time to act is now,” Slat said.

He told the Associated Press that researchers with his organization have found plastic from the 1960s and 1970s among the material in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It contains an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in total. Most float on the surface of the water, or are within a few meters of the surface.