Research | Updates | The Ocean Cleanup

Towards Spaceborne Detection of Ocean Plastic

In 2017, we announced our research partnership to investigate Remote Sensing of Marine Litter (RESMALI project) with the European Space Agency (ESA), ARGANS Ltd., and other spatial sector organizations. Remote…

Research, Science

Forecasting Ocean Plastic Around the Globe: A deep dive into modeling the garbage patches

Before reading this article, you could think that discussing the creation of a global ocean plastic forecast, without even looking at any results, is already pretty shocking. Global models are…

Research, Science, Team

Become a Citizen Scientist and Help Tackle Plastic Pollution

Starting today, you can join forces with us and help us gain greater insights into the plastic pollution problem in our oceans and rivers by using The Ocean Cleanup plastic…

Research

Predicting the Future of Plastic Pollution and Why Cleanup is Part of the Solution

Plastic pollution continues to have a global impact on our ecosystems, health, and economies. Because of the scale of the issue, there is still much to learn about the impacts of plastic pollution. Therefore, research is crucial when developing solutions. To that end, we must…

Research

Great Pacific Garbage Patch Slowly Breaks Down Into Microplastics to Pollute the Deep Sea

In our mission to rid the world’s oceans of plastic we rely on a thorough understanding of the ocean plastic pollution problem. To this end, our researchers have found that…

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…

Environment, Research

Mission One Environmental Monitoring Results Available

The Ocean Cleanup is developing advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. The passive drifting system, also known as System 001 or “Wilson”, was deployed in the Great…

Environment, Research

Whales likely impacted by Great Pacific Garbage Patch

A scientific note we published on April 09, 2019 reports the records of whales within the world’s largest accumulation of floating ocean plastic: the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Over the…

Oceanography, Research

Where Mismanaged Plastic Waste is Generated and Possible Paths of Change

As we kick off 2019, the engineering team is working towards solutions to the challenges we face with System 001, while the research team remains focused on the study of…

Oceanography, Research

Chasing Plastics: How to Close the Ocean Plastic Mass Balance

At The Ocean Cleanup we believe that you cannot solve a problem if you do not fully understand it. For this reason, we have put extensive efforts into fundamental plastic…