#TeamSeas • The Ocean Cleanup

The Ocean Cleanup has teamed up with #TeamSeas to help bring attention to the problem of plastic pollution in our oceans and raise funds to help solve it. The #TeamSeas fundraising campaign kicked off on October 29^th, 2021, and reached the goal of 30 million pounds of trash removal funded by January 2^nd, 2021. Half of the funds will go to The Ocean Cleanup, helping us deploy and operate Interceptors, collecting one pound of trash for every dollar donated.

TeamSeas and The Ocean Cleanup

TeamSeas is a fundraising campaign, initiated by Mark Rober and MrBeast, content creators on YouTube. The campaign’s goal is to raise 30 million USD to remove 30 million pounds of trash polluting coastal regions, rivers, and ultimately oceans. The funds raised will go to two organizations, split equally: The Ocean Cleanup and Ocean Conservancy. Watch Mark Rober and Boyan Slat chat about the Interceptor solution in the Dominican Republic in this video.

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Mark Rober and Boyan Slat discussing the partnership

The Interceptor

Stopping plastic before it enters the ocean is an essential part of reducing ocean plastic pollution. The Ocean Cleanup is already cleaning up in rivers worldwide, intercepting over 1 million kg (2.2 million lbs) to date. With the help of TeamSeas, we will be able to fund additional river cleanup solutions.

The TeamSeas campaign will help fund both the operation of some currently deployed Interceptors and the deployment of additional Interceptor solution deployments. Working with local partners such as the UNDP, The Ocean Cleanup will target rivers in Indonesia and the Dominican Republic. Because we must work with the right partners to ensure we are deploying the right solutions in the right places, new deployments with the TeamSeas campaign will begin in 2023.

At 16 years old, Boyan Slat saw more plastic bags than fish when scuba diving in Greece. He thought: “Why can’t we just clean this up?” This question led him to research the plastic pollution problem for a school project and develop an idea on how to clean it up. In 2012, Boyan Slat presented his concept at a TEDx talk, and the video went viral. The momentum that followed allowed him to drop out of school and found The Ocean Cleanup in 2013. The team now consists of 110+ people working on research, development, and operation of cleanup technology.

Boyan Slat on the Interceptor 002 in Klang River, Malaysia

Rivers are one of the primary sources of ocean plastic pollution: they are the arteries that carry waste from land to the ocean. The Ocean Cleanup’s research has found that 1000 rivers are responsible for nearly 80% of pollution entering the ocean from rivers. This sounds like an insurmountable number, but 1000 rivers make up only 1% of all the rivers in the world – meaning the problem is possible to fix.

Plastic pollution on a beach in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic — Plastic pollution on a beach in the Dominican Republic. The plastic found on beaches is dissimilar in terms of composition compared to what we find offshore.

The Ocean Cleanup develops and scales technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic and prevent it from reaching our oceans via rivers.

River plastic cleanup is a continuous and challenging activity. To make an impact, we must be committed to solving this problem in the long run. In each river we clean, The Ocean Cleanup needs to ensure they apply the right solution. This means investigating the best locations for deployment, researching the potential impact of the river systems, and working with stakeholders and governments to ensure the system is deployed and operated correctly.

We currently have our Interceptor deployed in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Dominican Republic, with more deployments coming soon.

The Interceptor - our cleanup technology to intercept plastic en route to the ocean — The Interceptor - The Ocean Cleanup's technology to intercept plastic in rivers en route to the ocean

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