Dutch developer's Ocean Cleanup ready to start

Dutch developer Boyan Slat's plastic catcher arrived at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on Wednesday and is ready to start the great ocean cleanup. According to The Ocean Cleanup's models, the plastic catcher can cleanup half of all the plastic currently in the ocean within 10 years.

The Ocean Cleanup system consists of large, solid barriers that will guide floating plastic to a central collection point using the currents of the ocean. Slat devised the system six years ago for his high school profile paper. It left from San Francisco for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch last month.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a massive patch of plastic soup floating in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. The waste there weights a total of around 80 million kilograms and covers an area three times the size of France.

Installation successfully completed. Thank you to the offshore crew for your work. We are ready to start the cleanup. pic.twitter.com/kiX39Aw1aw

— The Ocean Cleanup (@TheOceanCleanup) October 17, 2018