Ocean Cleanup project

The Ocean Cleanup Project has made a significant tweak to its design, switching from a passive device to one powered by active propulsion, which the team sees as a far more efficient and effective way of removing plastic waste from the ocean.

The Ocean Cleanup is ramping up production of its Interceptor plastic trash removers in partnership with Konecranes, with a thousand of the world's most heavily polluting rivers in its sights.

As part of its mission to tackle plastic pollution in the marine environment, The Ocean Cleanup project plans to sell goods made from the waste it recovers to fund its ongoing operations, and has just unveiled its very first product.

It hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing, but The Ocean Cleanup is now calling an end to a first successful mission to collect plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, today showing off the first pile of captured trash on the shores of Vancouver.

With its huge barriers now successfully collecting trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the Ocean Cleanup Project is heading upstream to tackle the issue closer to the source with "The Interceptor," a system to pull waste from rivers.

After years in development, the Ocean Cleanup has today announced that its prototype is capturing plastic debris from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The Ocean Cleanup team is reporting to have overcome a significant stumbling block, using a novel parachute-anchor mechanism to correct speed-related troubles plaguing its earlier approach to ocean-going garbage collection. ​

​​After a stint on the sidelines, The Ocean Cleanup Project is bouncing back into action following a few upgrades, with the team now hopeful it has a system better equipped to take on the massive task of plastic pollution in the ocean.​

Things aren't exactly going to plan for the Ocean Cleanup Project. Inspections of the approximately 600-meter-long barrier have uncovered a problematic break in the chain, prompting a return to shore for repairs.

​Around six weeks have passed since the Ocean Cleanup Project installed its trash-catching system in the Pacific, and it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing for the huge floating barrier so far. The team reports that attempts to overcome some initial teething problems haven’t exactly gone to plan

With the Ocean Cleanup Project's first system entering service in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch one month ago, there are some good signs and some bad, including an apparent inability of the huge floating barrier to retain plastic trash for very long after it is caught.

​It has been a long journey for the Ocean Cleanup Project, but after years of development and a 1,300-plus-mile trip through the open water, its first system is now installed at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the single biggest accumulation of ocean plastics in the world.