The Ocean Cleanup to Revamp Trash-collecting Device

The Ocean Cleanup group announced it is revamping the design of its trash-collecting device. The announcement comes just a few months after the device was launched to collect trash in the Pacific Ocean.

USA Today reports that the system deployed in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was having trouble holding on to the plastic pollution. The device, a 600-meter-long floater, was designed to collect up to 5 tons of ocean plastic a month.

The cleanup project began in September to target the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a swirling mass of plastic waste between California and Hawaii that has grown to at least 87,000 tons.

USA Today has more details:

The people behind a Dutch nonprofit focused on cleaning plastic pollution from the world's oceans are nothing if not resilient. Two months after the launch of their massive trash-collecting device to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, they're revamping the design they've worked on for years after it turned out to have some problems.

"The journey toward a clean ocean is certainly not an easy one," said the Ocean Cleanup's Chief Operations Officer Lonneke Holierhoek from her office in Rotterdam.

In a post on its blog late last month, the Ocean Cleanup's CEO Boyan Slat wrote that the device deployed in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to much fanfare in October was having trouble holding on to the plastic pollution it was created to corral.

Read the full article here.