The Ocean Cleanup and Municipality of Guatemala City Agree Cooperation Agreement to Tackle Plastic Pollution in Rivers

Deal aims to reduce plastic pollution within territory of Municipality of Guatemala City, with impact on Rio Motagua, ahead of new Interceptor trial.

Guatemala City, 08 March 2023 — The Ocean Cleanup, the international non-profit project with the mission of ridding the oceans of plastic, and the Municipality of Guatemala City have signed a Cooperation Agreement expanding and strengthening their collaboration on reducing plastic pollution in rivers in Guatemala City. The deal was signed by Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, and Ricardo Quiñonez Lemus, Mayor of the Municipality of Guatemala, on 8 March 2023.

This commitment to tackling plastic pollution together marks another step forward on The Ocean Cleanup’s mission to rid the oceans of plastic and demonstrates the dedication of the Municipality of Guatemala City to fight pollution in the Rio Motagua and to provide a cleaner and healthier environment for everyone in their community.

Under the Agreement, The Ocean Cleanup and the Municipality will explore locations for new Interceptor solutions in Guatemala City following the trial of Interceptor 006 in the Rio Las Vacas in May 2022. Further Interceptor trials throughout Guatemala are envisioned to reduce the influx of plastic into the Rio Motagua and on into the oceans, while also enhancing opportunities for local partners and civic authorities to form new partnerships intended to improve waste management in the region.

‘I am delighted that the Municipality of Guatemala City has chosen to strengthen our collaboration’ said Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup. ‘To rid the oceans of plastic we need support, and this collaboration shows that we and the Municipality are united in our goal of reducing plastic pollution where we can have maximum impact.’

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PRESS CONTACTS

The Ocean Cleanup:

CFF Communications, Amsterdam
Niels Broekhof
E: press@theoceancleanup.com
T: +31 (0)6 30 37 49 30

U.S. Media Representative, San Francisco
Alan Dunton
E: adunton@shiftcomm.com
T: +1 415-290-8219

ABOUT THE OCEAN CLEANUP
The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization that develops and scales technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. They aim to achieve this goal through a dual strategy: stemming the inflow via rivers and cleaning up the legacy plastic that has already accumulated in the ocean. For the latter, The Ocean Cleanup develops large-scale systems to efficiently concentrate the plastic for periodic removal. This plastic is tracked and traced through DNV’s chain of custody model to certify claims of origin when recycling it into new products. To curb the tide via rivers, The Ocean Cleanup has developed Interceptor™ solutions to halt and extract riverine plastic before it reaches the ocean. Founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat, The Ocean Cleanup now employs a broadly multi-disciplined team of approximately 140. The foundation is headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

For more information, visit: theoceancleanup.com and follow @theoceancleanup on social media.