Ocean Cleanup collects over $30 million; Pacific Ocean plastic collection set to launch

Dutch inventor Boyan Slat's Ocean Cleanup project received an extra investment of 21.7 million dollars. That brings the total up to 31.5 million dollars in donations received since 2013 - enough to start large scale testing. The company hopes to launch a large test in the Pacific Ocean by autumn, RTL Nieuws reports.

The biggest part of the new investment consists of donations from Marc and Lynne Benioff and an anonymous donor, according to the company.

Over the past years the Ocean Cleanup has been working on refining its technology to clean up floating plastic in the world's oceans. The system consists of large, solid barriers that will guide floating plastic to a central collection point using the currents of the ocean. According to the company's models, a system with 100 kilometers in barriers can clean up half of the plastic currently in the oceans within 10 years.