Dutch design breakthrough fast tracks oceans clean-up plan [View all]

[WhiteTara]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dutch-design-breakthrough-fast-tracks-oceans-clean-plan-044244910.html

A Dutch engineer aiming to clean up vast ocean "garbage patches" of plastic Thursday unveiled a radical design breakthrough, enabling his ambitious project to start two years early.

Boyan Slat's innovative scheme seeks to use ocean currents to help gather up an estimated five trillion pieces of plastic -- everything from bottles, to plastic bags, flip-flops and other detritus -- from the planet's waters.

After several years of research, including the first-ever detailed aerial survey of the largest garbage patch lying in the Pacific between Hawaii and the Californian coast, his Ocean Clean-up scheme has radically overhauled its plans.

Slat, who is still only 22, now hopes to begin deploying the first clean-up system within the next 12 months, instead of in 2020 as first promised.

He also hopes to be able to remove 50 percent of the Pacific patch within five years, compared with initial estimates of 42 percent within a decade.