The 19-year-old's garbage collection system at sea

The world's oceans now contain millions of tons of garbage, mostly plastic and debris. Even though people do not litter the water, experts predict that the amount of garbage will not stop increasing over time. To help clean up the ocean, a Dutch aviation engineering student named Boyan Slat, 19, designed an automated garbage collection system called Ocean Cleanup.

Ocean Cleanup system

Student Boyan Slat

With the cooperation of more than 100 people, Slat recently published a 528-page feasibility study document, which details the operation process of the system as well as clarifying the legal questions. costs, environmental impacts and challenges of the project.

In terms of structure, Ocean Cleanup consists of numerous V-shaped floating floats that are anchored to the seabed and placed on the path of large ocean currents. These 48 km long floats are designed to collect rubbish floating within 3 meters from the sea surface downwards. Gradually, garbage will gather in a narrow corner of the V shape, where they are processed. It is estimated that Ocean Cleanup can collect about 65m3 of garbage every day and the ships will arrive at the garbage every 45 days. One drawback of this system is that it does not collect plastic particles smaller than 0.1 mm which are the key to polluting the ocean.

It is known that Slat is mobilizing $ 2 million to realize its ocean cleanup project and now he has 3,300 supporters for nearly $ 200,000.