Milestones

By systematically eliminating technical risks through rapid iterations, we aim to reach full-scale deployment in both rivers and oceans. Our ultimate goal is to clean up 90% of the world’s floating ocean plastic by 2040.

The present

2025
System 03

System 03

Nearly three times larger than our previous technology and capable of cleaning the area of a football field every five seconds, the arrival of System 03 marks a huge leap forward in our mission of ridding the oceans of plastic.
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The past

2024
Time for action – port call event

Time for action – port call event

On September 6, our crew met up in San Francisco Bay to make an exciting announcement: The great Pacific Garbage Patch can be cleaned, at a cost of $7.5 bln in 10 years. Nevertheless, by tracking plastic hotspots and directing our vessels efficiently, we aim to clean the entire patch in 5 years at half the cost.
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2024
100th extraction – live streamed from the great pacific garbage patch
2021-2023
System 002 Proven Technology
2020
Recycled The First Plastic Catch

Recycled The First Plastic Catch

Since the initial pitch of The Ocean Cleanup, before it was even The Ocean Cleanup, there has always been a plan to do something meaningful with the plastic we remove from the ocean, to help fund the continuation of the cleanup. On October 24th, 2020, we launched our first product: The Ocean Cleanup sunglasses.
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June – November 2019
System 001/B – Catching the First Plastic

System 001/B – Catching the First Plastic

Using the lessons learned from the System 001 mission (2018), we were able to address the two main issues observed, plastic retention and structural integrity, with the design of System 001/B. System 001/B validated the core concept of our ocean cleanup technology and caught our first batch of ocean plastic.
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2018
System 001 – First Ocean Cleanup System

System 001 – First Ocean Cleanup System

On September 8, 2018, The Ocean Cleanup launched its first cleanup system, System 001, into the North Pacific to trial the technology in its intended environment. The team was able to conduct extensive testing; but, after four months offshore, the decision was made to return to port to further analyze the challenges encountered offshore. The learnings from System 001 brought us one step closer to proven technology and laid the foundation for future design iterations.
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2016
First North Sea Prototype
2015
Scale model testing

The present

System 03

System 03

The past

Time for action – port call event

100th extraction – live streamed from the great pacific garbage patch

System 002 Proven Technology

Recycled The First Plastic Catch

System 001/B – Catching the First Plastic

System 001 – First Ocean Cleanup System

First North Sea Prototype

Scale model testing