TeamSeas

At 16 years old, Boyan Slat went scuba diving in Greece – and saw more plastic bags that fish. He thought: “Why can’t we just clean this up?” This led him to research plastic pollution for his school project, and start coming up with solutions. In 2012, Boyan Slat presented his cleanup concept in a TEDx talk, and the idea went viral. Boyan dropped out of university and founded The Ocean Cleanup as a non-profit project in 2013. The Ocean Cleanup now has a crew of over 140 people and is supported by millions around the world who share our commitment to this mission.

Rivers are the primary source of ocean plastic pollution: they act as the arteries that carry waste from land to sea. The Ocean Cleanup’s research has found that 1000 rivers – only 1% of rivers globally – are responsible for nearly 80% riverine plastic emissions into the ocean. This information is crucial for our Interceptor strategy: we target our interventions towards these 1000 most polluting rivers, ensuring maximum impact and the most immediate reductions in plastic emissions into the ocean.

The Ocean Cleanup’s mission is to rid the oceans of plastic. To do this, we use a dual strategy: cleaning up the accumulated plastic in the oceans (starting with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch), while intercepting in rivers to cut the inflow. Interceptors are currently deployed in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Indonesia, Jamaica, Malaysia, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam, with plans for additional deployments in the future.

Our river solutions are tailored for each site, which means investigating ideal locations, researching any possible effects of intervention, and working with stakeholders, governments and communities to educate and raise awareness of the problem and its solutions.