Summary
Highlights
A 600-meter-long tube, dubbed a 'giant ocean snake,' is being towed to the Pacific Ocean's Great Garbage Patch to collect plastic rubbish. This area has immense amounts of plastic due to water currents, forming a patch almost the size of Queensland.
Boyan Slat, the inventor, conceived this idea in high school. His design involves floating barriers up to 100 kilometers long, shaped liked a V, to capture and funnel plastic. The system aims to let the plastic come to it, rather than actively chasing it.
Plastic pollution is a significant issue, with Australians discarding over 9 billion pieces annually. Unlike other materials, plastic takes a very long time to break down, harming marine life. Boyan and his organization, Ocean Cleanup, hope to address this problem.
The device aims to trap 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic while allowing marine life to swim safely beneath it. It's equipped with solar-powered lights, cameras, sensors, and satellite antennas. Collected plastic will be fished out every few months by boats, transported to land, and recycled.
Boyan Slat, now 24, plans further tweaks to the system. The goal is to deploy 60 of these giant 'snakes' into the Pacific Ocean by 2020, significantly expanding efforts to clean up ocean plastic.