The Ocean Cleanup

Ocean garbage patches are vast and dispersed


Take advantage of natural oceanic forces

The Ocean Cleanup is developing a passive system, using the natural oceanic forces to catch and concentrate the plastic. Both the plastic and system are being carried by the current.


To catch the plastic, act like the plastic

Waves, winds and currents make the plastic move in a certain manner. The same forces will act on our roaming systems, causing them to gravitate to the areas in the garbage patch with the highest concentration of plastic.

The more cleanup systems released, the more plastic will be collected. Computation models show a full-scale deployment will lead to a 50 % reduction of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 5 years’ time.

Extract, ship, recycle

In parallel to developing technology to extract plastic from the ocean, we also investigate how we can reuse the material once it is back on shore. Initial work on ocean plastic recycling shows our material can be turned into high quality products. Imagine your next phone, chair, car bumper or sunglasses could be made from plastic retrieved from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. By selling our branded material for reuse, we aim to eventually make the cleanup self-sustainable.


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