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System 03
Transitioning from System 002 in preparationImages (8)
System 002
Proof of technology reached in October, 2021Images (19)
Proof of Technology Announcement (10)
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October 20, 2021: Boyan Slat sharing a few words during the Proof of Technology announcement for System 002, The Ocean Cleanup's ocean system. -
October 20, 2021: Boyan Slat during the Proof of Technology announcement for System 002, The Ocean Cleanup's ocean system. -
October 20: Some of the plastic caught during the System 002 test campaign (July - October) on board one of the Maersk support vessels. -
October 20: Boyan Slat watching the offshore crew return to shore with System 002 and the plastic harvested. A marine parade was held in celebration of the successful test campaign of System 002. -
October 20: Boyan Slat, CEO and Founder sharing a few words about the test campaign of System 002, how we got here and what the next steps are. System 002 has lead us to proof of technology, and after this short celebration, it will go back out to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to capture more plastic.
Video footage (9)
Interceptors in Operation
Images (19)
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Interceptor 007, Ballona Creek, Los Angeles County (November, 2022) -
Interceptor 007, Ballona Creek, Los Angeles County (November, 2022) -
Interceptor 007 offloading, Ballona Creek, Los Angeles County (November, 2022) -
Interceptor 004 in the Rio Ozama, Dominican Republic, summer 2020 -
Interceptor 004 in the Rio Ozama, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, August 2020
Video footage (7)
Interceptor Trashfence in Guatemala
Las Vacas River, Interceptor 006Images (17)
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Interceptor 006 attempts to halt a trash tsunami, Rio Las Vacas, Guatemala -
Interceptor 006 in Las Vacas river, Guatemala, during the start of the flash flood. The Ocean Cleanup's first Interceptor Trashfence, piloted in May/June 2022 -
Interceptor 006 in Las Vacas river, Guatemala, after the flash flood. The Interceptor Trashfence suffered some damage and most of the plastic escaped during the flood. -
Interceptor Trashfence being inspected in Guatemala after the flashfloods -
Interceptor Trashfence, in Las Vacas river, Guatemala. Damaged after the flash flood.
Video footage (2)
Most GPGP Plastic Comes From Fishing
Paper published in Scientific ReportsImages (8)
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Plastic extraction from System 002, The Ocean Cleanup’s ocean system cleaning the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Many crates and buoys originating from fishing activities can be seen in the catch. -
Plastic extraction from System 002, The Ocean Cleanup’s ocean system cleaning the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Many crates and buoys originating from fishing activities can be seen in the catch. -
An item we find in large quantities are eel traps, used for fishing hagfish. -
Crew on board the support vessels of System 002, holding up a crate with eel traps. Eel traps is an item we find in large quantities, as are crates.
Illustrations (4)
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Left: origins of hard plastics recovered from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch Right: national sources of riverine plastic into global ocean (i.e. not only GPGP) -
Age distribution of floating plastic objects found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Dots represent relative distribution of global plastic production per decade.2 -
Composition of hard plastic debris larger than 5 cm (excluding nets and ropes) harvested from the GPGP by System 001/B both (a) by mass and (b) by count. -
Video footage (2)
Recycling the ocean plastic
From trash to treasure (2019-2020)Images (19)
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Plastic catch sealed off in containers. This is some of our first plastic catch, caught by System 001/B in 2019. The plastic in the end product - the sunglasses - is certified from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, following a chain of custody protocol by DNV. -
Boyan Slat presenting the sunglasses to an online audience in 2020 -
Boyan Slat standing with first plastic catch onshore at end of the System 001/B testing. The press conference was in Vancouver, Canada, in December 2019. -
DNV Auditor inspecting the pre-sorting of our first plastic catch in February, 2020. The plastic in the end product - the sunglasses - was certified from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, following a chain of custody protocol by DNV. -
Ghost nets being processed for recycling into granulate.
Video footage (7)
Boyan Slat
Founder and CEOImages (24)
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Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO, on a beach in Honduras. Rio Motagua basin has its estuary close to this beach. The Rio Las Vacas in Guatemala, in which The Ocean Cleanup is trialing an Interceptor Trashfence, is leading into Rio Motagua. The plastic pollution on the beach is estimated to come from this source. -
Boyan Slat unveiling the Interceptor, October 26th, 2019 -
Boyan Slat, Founder & CEO, standing in front of The Ocean Cleanup's 1000 rivers pollution map -
Boyan Slat at the Interceptor in Klang river, Malaysia -
Boyan Slat, CEO and founder, during the live announcement on December 12th in Vancouver, Canada. He gave a recap of Ocean Mission One and explained the next steps for the plastic caught - to turn it into durable products that will help fund the continuation of the cleanup
Plastic Pollution
Images (25)
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Trail of plastic floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -
Motagua River, Guatemala, plastic pollution -
Plastic pollution washed up on a beach in Dominican Republic -
Plastic pollution on beach next to the river mouth of Motagua river -
A young monk seal on Laysan Island holds a plastic fragment in his mouth. Photo credits: Matthew Chauvin
Illustrations (22)
Video footage (2)
Plastic Research
Images (18)
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Manta trawl (starboard) and underwater trawl (stern - cable from blue A-frame) during deep sea research mission 2018. The aim of the mission was to see if the plastic afloat in ocean garbage patches can pollute the deep sea below. -
CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, Density) profiler during deep sea research, 2018. The aim of the mission was to see if plastic floating in ocean garbage patches can pollute the deep sea below -
Counting and categorizing the sampled microplastic during the deep sea expedition 2018. The aim of the mission was to see if the plastic afloat in ocean garbage patches can pollute the deep sea below. -
River plastic research in Malaysia, conducted by The Ocean Cleanup crew and local research partners. -
River plastic research in Guatemala
Illustrations (8)
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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), as mapped by The Ocean Cleanup in 2015-2016. -
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch in Numbers - Infographic -
Composition of the inner GPGP. Currently, about 5-10% of its mass is microplastics. -
The journey of floating ocean plastic from rivers to garbage patches -
Future scenarios for macroplastics in the GPGP. The dark band shows what would happen without any change. Addressing the source (left) causes the amount of ocean pollution to stay constant. Combining source reduction with cleanup (right) causes the amount of ocean pollution to decline.
Video footage (8)
The Interceptor™ Unveiling
October 26, 2019, Rotterdam, The NetherlandsImages (12)
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Rotterdam, October 26, 2019 - The Ocean Cleanup unveils the Interceptor, the first scalable river cleanup technology. -
Rotterdam, October 26, 2019 - The Ocean Cleanup unveils the Interceptor, the first scalable river cleanup technology. -
Rotterdam, October 26, 2019 - The Ocean Cleanup unveils the Interceptor, the first scalable river cleanup technology. -
Rotterdam, October 26, 2019 - The Ocean Cleanup unveils the Interceptor, the first scalable river cleanup technology. -
Rotterdam, October 26, 2019 - The Ocean Cleanup unveils the Interceptor, the first scalable river cleanup technology.