Huge Ocean Cleanup system collected nearly a tonne of plastic waste - video

In August, the Ocean Cleanup project returned to sea to tackle the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. As a result, the new system collected nearly a tonne of plastic waste.

The redesigned refuse collection system is the largest to date. The new approach seems to be bringing the first benefits. The creators of the Ocean Cleanup project hailed it as a success after the final testing phase of System 002. As a trophy, they took with them a huge haul of plastic waste.

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Cleanu Ocean Projectp began in 2013. The plans were ambitious – cleaning up the surface of the oceans made of plastic by means of huge floating barriers. However, nothing stands still, so the system itself has undergone many changes and modifications since then. Its creators claim that it is now more efficient and better able to fulfil its function.

System 002, which was launched in August 2021, has departed significantly from its original design. Because the developers abandoned a passive design in favour of active propulsion. In short, instead of relying on a drifting system dependent on winds and currents, the new design was towed by ships positioned at either end.

The Ocean Cleanup decided to test the new system on The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. They towed System 002 at a constant speed of 1.5 knots and collected the plastic waste into a retention zone at its end. With a total length of 800m, the whole is the largest system put into service on the project Ocean Cleanup. It is also the first system to operate on such a large scale.

After towing the new system to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in August 2021, the Ocean Cleanup team conducted more than 70 tests. As the last, the researchers performed a test that lasted 6 weeks, during which they fully populated the new system. To the great joy of the team, the whole thing was a great success.

Not only oceans

Although a lot of data was collected during the tests, researchers from The Ocean Cleanup are still analysing the results of the catch. All this is to make the whole thing as efficient and effective as possible. Removing the effects, however, is only one part of the project. The other is The Inceptor system, which is designed to intercept waste. It is a system that operates on rivers that carry pollution into the oceans.

Although the work of The Ocean Cleanup is still only a drop in the ocean of needs, let us remember that it is precisely such drops that break the rock and become the beginning of change.