A huge floating u-shaped boom, designed to clean up “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” is finally catching plastic and other trash.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the world’s largest ocean dump, is the largest accumulation zone for ocean plastics on Earth.
Earlier Boyan Slat, the creator of the Ocean Cleanup project and his team designed a device that passively collects plastic in its fold like a giant arm. But due to some flaws, that very device was not successful. But now the team has come up with the device that is working beyond their expectations.
Boyan Slat said, “Today, I am very proud to share with you that we are now catching plastics,”
Device can capture and grasp debris ranging in size from huge abandoned fishing gear to tiny MICROPLASTICS as small as 1 millimeter.
The device has U-shaped barrier with a net-like skirt that hangs below the surface of the water. For collection of rubbish, it is fitted with satellites and sensors.
Ocean Cleanup has plans to reduce the size of the patch by half every five years.
Slat said, “I think in a few years’ time when we have the full-scale fleet out there, I think it should be possible to cover the operational cost of the cleanup operation using the plastic harvested,”
