General

General, Oceanography, Research, Science

The Quest to Find the Missing Plastic

For the last five years, researchers at The Ocean Cleanup have been working to understand the scope of ocean plastic pollution in order to help the organization effectively design technology…

Engineering, General

Into the Twilight Zone

We have completed our test campaign with System 001/B . A consistent speed through the plastic has been achieved using the parachute anchor configuration, therefore, solving our main technical challenge…

General

European Commission Appoints Boyan Slat as Board Member of Horizon Europe’s Healthy Ocean Mission

Boyan Slat, CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, has been appointed as one of the board members of the ocean mission in the European Commission’s Horizon Europe program. The mission of…

General

System 001/B – The Mission Plan

In our last update, we shared the modifications to our system design and how we plan to test them in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch this summer. Now, only one month…

Engineering, General

System 001 Learnings – Root Causes Summarized

In September, we launched our first system, with the aim of achieving proof of technology and commencing cleanup. Twenty years after the discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, this…

Discussion, General, Oceanography

The Ocean Cleanup and the Neuston

On January 22, an opinion piece was published in The Atlantic, originally titled “The Ocean Cleanup Project Could Destroy the Neuston.” Since preventing the destruction of ocean ecosystems is the…

General

Wilson to Return to Port for Repair and Upgrade

Due to a structural malfunctioning of the cleanup system, today we made the decision to return to port earlier than planned. We will set sail as soon as an appropriate…

General, Testing

Testing Continues to Understand System Behavior

Shift 3 has recently arrived at the System 001 location in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), where a series of tests will be conducted to help us understand why…

Engineering, General

Wilson Update – Tweaking the System

It has been four weeks since we deployed System 001 in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). In this time, we have observed that plastic is exiting the system once…

General

Cleanup Commences: System 001 Has Arrived

On October 3rd, System 001 embarked on its final leg of the journey to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. We are happy to announce that it has reached its intended…