New Atlas

Environment Audio available

Ocean Cleanup system installed and ready for work at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Nick Lavars October 17, 2018

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.

The Ocean Cleanup Project has installed its first system in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Environment Audio available

The Ocean Cleanup picks out marine plastics using infrared from air

Nick Lavars September 25, 2018

The Ocean Cleanup project has been experimenting with a new technique to fill in some of the blanks and has, what it says, is the first proof of concept for using a form of infrared imagery to quantify marine plastic pollution.

The Ocean Cleanup carried out an aerial survey of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 2016

Environment Audio available

Ocean Cleanup system launches for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Nick Lavars September 9, 2018

The Ocean Cleanup Project’s long-awaited collection system has been launched and is now en route for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, ready to chip away at the largest accumulation of ocean plastics in the world.

Launched on Saturday from San Francisco, the completed system is now headed for the Great Pacific ...

Environment Audio available

Ocean Cleanup system completed and ready to be towed out to sea

Nick Lavars September 3, 2018

After more than five years of development, the moment of truth is fast arriving for the Ocean Cleanup Project. Team members added the finishing touches to the trash-catching system over the weekend, with less than a week to go until it is towed out towards the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The Ocean Cleanup Project is an ambitious venture to clean up plastic waste from the ocean

Environment

Giant Pac-Man: Ocean Cleanup's final design to eat away at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Nick Lavars July 22, 2018

The Ocean Cleanup’s trash-collecting barriers have been through a number of iterations since their conception around five years ago. The latest cleverly harnesses the power of wind and surface waves to autonomously sweep through the area, gathering up plastic waste as it goes.

The Ocean Cleanup Project expects that its trash-catching barriers can clean up 50 percent of the ...

Environment

Ocean Cleanup's plastic-catching barriers stand tall in Pacific tow tests

Nick Lavars July 11, 2018

The Ocean Cleanup Project is edging ever closer to the rollout of its first plastic collection barriers, and is increasingly confident that it can make the journey, with the latest testing indicating that can stand up to stormy ocean conditions.

The Ocean Cleanup Project's trash-collection barrier under testing in the Pacific

Environment

Ocean Cleanup Project tests the waters with its first rollout in the Pacific

Nick Lavars May 24, 2018

The Ocean Cleanup project has been busy knocking up its first barriers since moving into an old naval base earlier this year, and now it's in the process of seeing how the first pieces of the puzzle stand up in the Pacific Ocean.

A 120-meter section of The Ocean Cleanup Project's barrier is towed out to sea

Environment

Great Pacific Garbage Patch might be 16 times bigger than we thought

Nick Lavars March 22, 2018

Science is revealing more and more about the huge amount of plastic we're pouring into the ocean. New research has shown that its most tangible manifestation, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), is a whole lot larger than we thought.

Research vessels collected 1.2 million plastic samples and the aircraft scanned more than 300 sq km ...

Environment

Ocean Cleanup Project moves into old naval station ahead of mid-year deployment

Nick Lavars February 13, 2018

The Ocean Cleanup Project is continuing to zero in on its primary target, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, today announcing that it has leased space at a former naval station to begin assembling its first giant trash-collecting booms.

The Ocean Cleanup project plans to tow Cleanup System #1 out into the Pacific midway through ...

Environment Feature

So, about all that plastic in the ocean...

Nick Lavars June 29, 2017

For thousands of years humans have existed on Earth, but it is only in the last 100 or so that plastics have entered our lives. Millions of metric tons now enter the ocean every year, and no one really knows where it is and what damage it is causing. So ... what are we to do about it?

Millions of metric tons of plastic enter the ocean each year