Almost 8,000 kg less plastic in the Pacific Ocean: that is the achievement of the Dutch association The Ocean Cleanup in one day. On Sunday 10 July, the organization embarked with two boats for the “Great Garbage Zone in the Pacific”, an area of the ocean where 80,000 tons of waste accumulate on the surface of the water. This garbage can in the middle of nature extends over an area equal to three times that of our Hexagon, underlined the Parisian.
To rid the Pacific Ocean of some of this waste, The Ocean Cleanup has developed an ingenious technique. She made a sort of waste trap, using two boats and a huge net. Result: the waste is collected and can be stored on both ships. Back on dry land, the association sorts the waste and recycles what is possible. Great job to clean up our oceans.
It wasn’t the first time The Ocean Cleanup boats had started a cleanup operation in this part of the Pacific. In an Instagram post from early July, the Dutch association explained that it had collected “more than 82,000 kg of plastic during 29 extractions in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch”.