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Aerial view of a ghost net in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Research

Remote Sensing of Ocean Plastics

Today, our results on the analysis of hyperspectral imagery collected during our 2016 Aerial Expedition above the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) were published in the scientific journal Environmental Science…

25 September 2018 Laurent Lebreton
Environment, Research

Environmental Impact Assessment Available

With the thorough analysis performed by independent environmental consultancy CSA Ocean Sciences now complete, The Ocean Cleanup has issued the results of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for System 001.…

23 July 2018
Oceans, Research

The Exponential Increase of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

After three years of research including two field expeditions, extensive laboratory experiments and data analyses, we are thrilled to finally release the results of our study on the infamous Great…

22 March 2018 Laurent Lebreton
Environment, Research

How Ocean Plastics Turn into a Dangerous Meal

Our research team has just published a new article in the journal Environmental Science and Technology revealing that plastics within the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are loaded with pollutants at…

21 December 2017 Julia Reisser
Oceanography, Research

Investigating Plastic Detection from Space

After almost 3 years of work, The Ocean Cleanup research team has recently submitted its comprehensive results about plastic pollution in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. More than 1.2 million pieces…

15 November 2017 Laurent Lebreton
Research, Team

Dr. Richard Spinrad Joins The Ocean Cleanup’s Scientific Advisory Board

The Ocean Cleanup is honored to welcome former NOAA Chief Scientist Dr. Richard (Rick) Spinrad as the newest member of our Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).

31 July 2017
Global yearly plastic inputs from rivers into oceans. Browse the interactive map at theoceancleanup.com/sources
Research

Quantifying global plastic inputs from rivers into oceans

Quantifying plastic pollution in the world’s ocean requires a good understanding of sources. It is commonly accepted that most plastic found in or near the marine environment is coming from…

7 June 2017 Laurent Lebreton
Research

Understanding the rising speed of plastic

The Ocean Cleanup Research Team continues to analyze data from our expeditions, including our Mega Expedition which provided us with the largest sample of ocean plastic ever collected (1.1 million particles weighing…

9 February 2017 Francesco Ferrari
Oceanography, Research

Ocean Plastic Mostly Near Surface, Study Shows

It is a commonly held belief that plastic pollution is spread from the ocean surface to seabed. Our newest study, published today in Nature Scientific Reports, shows that at least…

10 October 2016
Oceanography, Research

The Ocean Cleanup Aerial expedition: mission update

The Aerial Expedition is about to begin! In a few days, we will start conducting visual surveys, supplemented with state-of-art sensors to quantify the biggest and most harmful type of marine…

21 September 2016
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