The Ocean Cleanup

The Ocean Cleanup is a Dutch nonprofit organization based in the Netherlands that develops technologies intended to reduce plastic pollution in oceans and rivers. Founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat the group focuses on two main approaches large offshore collection systems designed for accumulation zones such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and land‑based “Interceptor” devices deployed in rivers to capture waste before it reaches the sea. The organization’s work has received extensive media attention and has been the subject of both support and criticism. The Ocean Cleanup has conducted many prototype trials since 2018, iterating on its offshore system and expanding its rive program to several countries. The organization publishes operational data and environmental assessments, while external studies continue to evaluate ecological impact and long-term performance of large-scale cleanup systems. As of 2026, the project remains one of the most visible attempts to engineer technological solutions to global plastic pollution, operating through a combination of philanthropic funding, corporate partnerships, and public donations. As of 2026, the organization has removed over 60 million kilograms (60,000 metric tons) of trash from rivers and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

History The Ocean Cleanup project was founded in 2013 by Dutch inventor Boyan Slat after presenting a concept for passive ocean cleaning at a TED-talk the previous year. The organization began as a small volunteer initiative before receiving crowd funding and other support that enabled early engineering studies and feasibility assessments. Independent reporting at the time noted both enthusiasm for the idea and skepticism from scientists as to whether large scale clean-up systems could operate in open ocean environments. Between 2014 and 2017, the group conducted numerical modeling, scale-modeling tests, and coastal trials to determine how floating barriers behave in waves and currents.

2014–2017: Initial prototypes The barriers would direct the floating plastic to the central platform, which would remove the plastic from the water.the design consisted of a tower detached from the floating barriers. This platform would collect the plastic using a conveyor belt. The floating barrier was proposed to be 100 km (62 mi) long. They conducted and published a feasibility study. In 2015, this design won the London Design Museum Design of the Year, and the INDEX: Award. Later that year, scale model tests were conducted in wave pools at Deltares and MARIN, testing the dynamics and load of the barrier in ocean conditions, and gathering data for computational modeling. According to later reporting, the development process ultimately involved testing 273 scale models and six distinct prototypes before the organization finalized the design that preceded System 001. A 100-metre (330 ft) segment went through a test in the North Sea in the summer of 2016. The test indicated that conventional oil containment booms would not stand up over time, and they changed the floater material to a hard-walled HDPE pipe. In May 2017 changes to the conceptual design were made. This included reducing the length of the boom from 100 km (62 mi) to 2 km (1.2 mi) to increase unit scalability, replacing seabed anchors with sea anchors to allow it to drift with currents, and replacing the automatic system for removing accumulated plastic with a manual one.

System 001 On 9 September 2018, System 001 deployed from San Francisco. The ship Maersk Launcher towed the system to a position 240 nautical miles off the coast, where it was put through a series of sea trials. It consisted of a 600 m (2,000 ft) long barrier with a 3 m (9.8 ft) wide skirt hanging beneath it. It was unmanned and incorporated solar-powered monitoring and navigation systems, including GPS, cameras, lanterns and AIS. The barrier and the screen were produced by an Austrian supplier. In October 2018 it was towed to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch for real-world duty. System 001 encountered difficulties retaining the plastic collected. The system collected debris, but soon lost it because the barrier did not retain a consistent speed through the water. In December, mechanical stress caused an 18-meter section to detach, and the rig was moved to Hawaii for inspection and repair. During the two months of operation, it had captured 2 metric tons of plastic. In June 2019, after four months of root cause analyses and redesign, System 001/B was deployed, with a water-borne parachute to slow the system, and an extended cork line to hold the screen in place. This successfully captured smaller plastic, reduced the barrier size by two-thirds, and was easier to adjust offshore. However, System 001/B still did not adequately capture and retain debris.

Interceptors 001-010 In October 2019, The Ocean Cleanup unveiled a barrier for river cleanup, The Interceptor, to intercept river plastic and prevent it from reaching the ocean. Two systems were deployed in Jakarta (Indonesia) and Klang (Malaysia). In January 2020, flooding broke the barrier of Interceptor 001 in Jakarta. It was replaced with a newer model with a stronger screen, simpler design, and an adjustable better-defined weak link. A third Interceptor was deployed in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic. In December, The Ocean Cleanup announced they would start large-scale production of the Interceptor series. In July 2022, an Interceptor Original was deployed near the mouth of Ballona Creek in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. This was the first Interceptor Original installed in the United States, and the second of its kind to be deployed globally. In May 2022, the Ocean Cleanup trialed a new Interceptor called Trashfence on the Rio Las Vacas, a tributary of the Rio Motagua, in Guatemala. It was anchored to the riverbed, and the anchors washed out. In April 2023, they returned with a pair of new Interceptors, at a point on the river with slower current, anchored to the riverbank. This was successful, and soon became their most prolific site; in its first year it removed 10,000,000 kg of trash from the river.

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