- After 6 years of development and three years of extraction operations, The Ocean Cleanup declares the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can be eliminated
- Ocean Plastic pollution is one of the most urgent problems our oceans face today, costing the world up to $2.5 trillion per year in damage to economies, industries and the environment
- The Ocean Cleanup’s operations demonstrate that the elimination of the GPGP can be done at today’s level of performance in 10 years at a cost of $7.5bn*
- Data and modelling indicate that the removal of the GPGP could be achieved in 5 years at a cost of $4bn*
- Today we call upon the world to join us in a time for action – the cost of inaction is catastrophic to marine ecosystems, human health, and the environment**
San Francisco, September 6, 2024: The Ocean Cleanup today declared the eradication of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) achievable within a decade and an ambition to make the cleanup happen faster and more cost effectively. Today’s announcement is the first time both a cost and a timeline has been placed on ridding the Pacific Ocean of the environmental hazard presented by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Cleanup technology validated and ready for scale-up
6 years after sailing out of San Francisco with the ambition of developing the technology to rid the world’s oceans of plastic, The Ocean Cleanup returned to San Francisco with the knowledge and know-how to relegate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to the history books.
Arriving in San Francisco with System 03, the technology created by The Ocean Cleanup to extract plastic from ocean gyres, the organization showcased the results of their most recent extraction operations in the GPGP. Over the past 3 years, The Ocean Cleanup has removed more than one million pounds of trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or 0.5% of the total accumulated trash. The data and modelling of these and future operations conclusively proves that the problem is solvable within a decade and could be done in 5 years at a cost of $4bn.
Time for action
The Ocean Cleanup calls upon the world, governments, corporations, individuals, and foundations to prioritize the resolution of this important marine environment and ensure that the cleaning of the ocean becomes a global priority.
In 2025 The Ocean Cleanup will take a one-year operational hiatus in order to deploy a new hotspot hunting initiative designed to map the “hotspots”, or areas of intense plastic accumulation in the GPGP, making extractions more impactful.
Commenting on the announcement, Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup said: “Today’s announcement is clear, clean oceans can be achieved in a manageable time and for a clear cost. Through the hard work of the past 10 years, humanity has the tools needed to clean up the ocean. We have shown the world that the impossible is now possible. The only missing thing is who will ensure this job gets done. We call upon the world to relegate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to the history books. This environmental catastrophe has been allowed to exist, unresolved, for too long and for the first time we can tell the world what it costs, what is needed and how long it could take. It is time for action.”
*Putting the cost of clean oceans in context:
Annual spend in the US on Halloween decorations $10.6bn
US pet food spending in 2024 $66.9 bn
Combined net worth of the top 10 richest people $1.66tn
1% of the annual revenues of the world’s plastic producers $7.2bn
Cost to the world’ economies, industries and the environment caused by plastic pollution $2.5 trillion
**Understanding the environmental impact of cleanup operations:
While prevention of further pollution is critical, measures to reduce future plastic emissions do not address impacts of plastics that have already accumulated in the ocean. Without any action, this legacy plastic pollution will continue to reside in and impact marine ecosystems for decades or centuries to come. Therefore, cleanup of existing plastic pollution in our oceans is needed to reduce identified risks to marine ecosystem (Richon et al., 2023).
To ensure that the harm reduction achieved by removing plastic pollution exceeds potential environmental damage caused by the cleanup, The Ocean Cleanup follows a comprehensive environmental management plan in line with recommendations by independent scientists (Falk-Andersson et al., 2023). The approach consists of environmental impact assessments prior to deployment of cleanup technology, a series of mitigation measures to minimize identified risks, as well as monitoring of interactions with marine life and reporting thereof.
The extensive data collected throughout the past years now allows us to start assessing the net environmental benefit of cleaning the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). Together with independent and renowned scientists we developed a plastic pollution impact assessment framework and applied it to evaluate whether cleaning the GPGP provides a net benefit to marine life and regional carbon cycling. This work is currently undergoing peer review and will be made publicly available upon publication.
ABOUT THE OCEAN CLEANUP
The Ocean Cleanup is an international non-profit that develops and scales technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. They aim to achieve this goal through a dual strategy: intercepting in rivers to stop the flow and cleaning up what has already accumulated in the ocean. For the latter, The Ocean Cleanup develops and deploys large-scale systems to efficiently concentrate the plastic for periodic removal. This plastic is tracked and traced to certify claims of origin when recycling it into new products. To curb the inflow, The Ocean Cleanup has developed Interceptor™ solutions to halt and extract plastic in rivers before it reaches the ocean. As of August 2024, the non-profit has collected over 16 million kilograms (35.3 million pounds) of trash from aquatic ecosystems around the world. Founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat, The Ocean Cleanup now employs a broadly multi-disciplined team of approximately 140. The foundation is headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and opened its first regional office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2023.
For more information visit theoceancleanup.com and follow @theoceancleanup on social media.
