Oceans

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch can be Cleaned for $7.5 Billion

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    • Ocean plastic pollution is one of the most urgent problems our oceans face today, costing the world up to $2.5 trillion per year in damage to economies, industries, and the environment
    • The Ocean Cleanup’s operations demonstrate that the elimination of the GPGP can be done at today’s level of performance in 10 years at a cost of $7.5bn. Although, data and modelling indicate that the removal of the GPGP could be achieved in 5 years at a cost of $4bn
    • Today, we call upon the world to join us in a time for action – the cost of inaction is catastrophic to marine ecosystems, human health, and the environment

San Francisco, September 6, 2024 – The Ocean Cleanup today declared the eradication of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) achievable within a decade and an ambition to make the cleanup happen faster and more cost-effectively. Today’s announcement is the first time both a cost and a timeline has been placed on ridding the Pacific Ocean of the environmental hazard presented by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

CLEANUP TECHNOLOGY VALIDATED AND READY FOR SCALE-UP

Six years after sailing out of San Francisco with the ambition of developing the technology to rid the world’s oceans of plastic, The Ocean Cleanup returned to San Francisco with the knowledge and know-how to relegate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to the history books.

Arriving in San Francisco with System 03, the technology created by The Ocean Cleanup to extract plastic from ocean gyres, the organization showcased the results of their most recent extraction operations in the GPGP. Over the past three years, The Ocean Cleanup has removed more than one million pounds of trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or 0.5% of the total accumulated trash. The data and modeling of these and future operations conclusively prove that the problem is solvable within a decade and could be done in 5 years at a cost of $4bn.

If you missed it, watch the recorded live stream here

TIME FOR ACTION

The Ocean Cleanup calls upon the world, governments, corporations, individuals, and foundations to prioritize the resolution of this important marine environment and ensure that the cleaning of the ocean becomes a global priority.

In 2025, The Ocean Cleanup’s extraction operations will be on hiatus for one year in order to deploy a new hotspot hunting initiative designed to map the “hotspots,” or areas of intense plastic accumulation in the GPGP, making extractions more impactful.

Commenting on the announcement, Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, said: “Today’s announcement is clear: clean oceans can be achieved in a manageable time and for a clear cost. Through the hard work of the past 10 years, humanity has the tools needed to clean up the ocean. We have shown the world that the impossible is now possible. The only missing thing is who will ensure this job gets done. We call upon the world to relegate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to the history books. This environmental catastrophe has been allowed to exist, unresolved, for too long, and for the first time, we can tell the world what it costs, what is needed and how long it could take. It is time for action.”

The two vessels, Tender & Trader, cruising below the Golden Gate Bridge as they return to port from the Pacific Ocean
Our founder and CEO, Boyan Slat, presenting the announcement to the media

  1. To put the cost of clean oceans in context, the annual spend in the US on Halloween decorations is $10.6bn USD; US pet food spending in 2024 was $66.9bn USD; the combined net worth of the top 10 richest people is $1.66tn USD, and 1% of the annual net profits of the world’s plastic producers is $7.2bn USD. The cost to the world’s economies, industries and the environment caused by plastic pollution is $2.5tn USD. ↩
  2. To understand the environmental impact of cleanup operations, while prevention of further pollution is critical, measures to reduce future plastic emissions do not address impacts of plastics that have already accumulated in the ocean. Without any action, this legacy plastic pollution will continue to reside in and impact marine ecosystems for decades or centuries to come. Therefore, cleanup of existing plastic pollution in our oceans is needed to reduce identified risks to marine ecosystems (Richon et al., 2023). To ensure that the harm reduction achieved by removing plastic pollution exceeds potential environmental damage caused by the cleanup, The Ocean Cleanup follows a comprehensive environmental management plan in line with recommendations by independent scientists (Falk-Andersson et al., 2023). The approach consists of environmental impact assessments prior to deployment of cleanup technology, a series of mitigation measures to minimize identified risks, as well as monitoring of interactions with marine life and reporting thereof. The extensive data collected throughout the past years now allows us to start assessing the net environmental benefit of cleaning the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). Together with independent and renowned scientists we developed a plastic pollution impact assessment framework and applied it to evaluate whether cleaning the GPGP provides a net benefit to marine life and regional carbon cycling. This work is currently undergoing peer review and will be made publicly available upon publication. ↩