Is that it? That's all the plastic they gathered??

Spending all that effort for that small amount of recovered material is insane. Three guys could've collected that much stuff out of most streams and rivers in Asia in one afternoon _by_ _hand_.

@aki009 it is true that people could be collecting this amount of plastic from oceans and dreams _by__hand_ however the sad reality is that over the years we haven't bothered. This has left a giant problem in our oceans that will take innovative thought and a lifetime of commitment. If you've been following, this first batch is still just from a prototype. Once the prototype is working they can make hundreds more and it will be through this innovation and careful planning that we see real results in the hardest places we've polluted. I love the idea of you going out with two friends to collect this much from the places we can reach! We need that too. When you've collected some ocean plastic please share pictures so we can be proud of you too! In the meantime, unless you'd like to get onboard and dedicate some time to creating a better solution (I'm sure Boyan would love to hear any ideas) it isn't helpful to hear discouraging comments from the peanut gallery.

Disappointing use of resources wasted on such a small amount of reclaimed material. Carbon emissions from this project must far outweigh and negligible positive impact.

Regrettably, there may be vastly more waterlogged plastic, on the sea bed, which is impossible to collect, but bottom feeding fish will still ingest it and die, and maybe poison other creatures who eat them in turn. Prevention is always better than cure, so really, the only solution is to fine governments millions, when it can be proven that plastic waste came from their country. That is the only way to encourage them to do whats needed to control their populations dirty habits. It would be educational to identify how much is commercial waste, ie from merchant ships, fishing boats, etc, and how much is from non-commercial sources. Then, maybe shipping companies can be targeted with fines as well. The efforts of ''The Ocean Cleanup'' are commendable, but compared to the vast numbers of delinquents, chucking their garbage into water ways, merely a 'drop in the Ocean!'

Good start to a hopefully successful venture. It will be great to see the mountains worth of plastic collected as this matures.

New Atlas Writers:
Either:
1) mention the WEIGHT of plastics removed in this effort
or
2) Mention WHY you can't mention the weight, such as 'Ocean-Cleanup' didn't or wouldn't say.
ALSO either:
3) Mention the *COST* of this excursion
or
4) Say you don't know, or can't find out the cost.

Certainly that can't be all of it... where are the photos of the piles of trash unloaded?

I think it would have been helpful for the article to actually quantify how much plastic this project was able collect in the last year, even in this prototype phase (in pounds, or tons, or full 20 foot containers worth). I am hopeful that the few photos shown don't do justice to the overall cleanup completed thus far, but am curious to know if I am wrong.

Now if we can only find a way to get the world to stop using and producing more plastics...

My thoughts were along the line as aki009’s when I looked at the photo. We can only hope that they are many magnitudes more successful and soon or it will be a tremendous waste. I was expecting a much, much larger pile!

Oh pulease, we can't tell if that partially-filled container is a 20 or 40 foot, but regardless, it it miniscule compared to the plastic waste that ends up needlessly in land fills and bodies water. Still, it's in our oceans, so it is crucial. So how are they going to produce marketable plastic products that are made from 6 or 7 different polymers? Methinks this is pretentious posturing to appease the sensibilities of the greenies for media consumption. There are way more things to be done in this effort before it can be considered viable, so please don't spend thousands of dollars in fuel and use million dollars of equipment to pretend that selling plastic products will pay for all this. The final cost should be borne on the companies that use plastic products carelessly and excessively by convincing us that over consumption is a good thing.