Cleaning up the garbage patches

The fundamental challenge of cleaning up the ocean garbage patches is that the plastic pollution is highly diluted and spanning millions of square kilometers. Our cleanup solution is designed to first concentrate the plastic, allowing us to effectively collect and remove vast quantities. This is how it works:

MANAGING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

The main reason we clean up plastic is to reduce its negative impact on sea life and protect the ocean. But as with any operation, there is always some risk involved. While conducting cleanup, we must ensure that we limit any adverse effects of our operations on the environment.

During our first mission with Systems 001 and 001/B, no substantial interference with the surrounding ecosystem and/or marine life was observed. When designing System 002, we incorporated the insights from previous campaigns and had close internal and external feedback loops to limit potential negative impacts. We have also conducted an independent Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for System 002, CSA Ocean Sciences, which did not identify any major risks of our method to the environment, provided we maintain close monitoring of our operations.

As we continue to learn more about the technology and the behaviors of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, we will have trained observers on board the System 002 mission to monitor how this new system interacts with the natural environment. We are also committed to offsetting all carbon emissions associated with the System 002 campaign. For more about our approach to topics like these, see our Environment page.

SURVIVING STORMS

Because the cleanup systems are meant to stay in the patch for long periods, it is crucial that our systems can withstand ocean forces. We will closely monitor the loads on the system and adapt the speed and span in the case of rough seas. We will also follow the latest weather forecasts and plan the trajectory to avoid storms, and by understanding the patch climate, we can conduct operations in less critical locations. In the case of a particularly severe storm, the system can be temporarily withdrawn from activity.

By trialing technologies , we have now confirmed the foundational concept behind our cleanup design: maintaining a relative speed difference between the plastic and the cleanup system to catch and retain plastic in the garbage patches. Following System 001/B, which used a parachute anchor to keep the system moving slower than the plastic, we concluded that we could not effectively scale up with this design. Therefore, we shifted gears and are now developing a new approach that uses active propulsion to continuously move faster than the plastic (System 002). With an actively propelled system, we will be able to catch more plastic quicker and more efficiently because now we can – contrary to the passive approach – steer the systems towards areas with high concentrations of plastic. With System 002, we are now nearing the validation phase for our Ocean project.