Hi there,

today I want to introduce a great idea, which some of you might heard about already. Two years ago the project was introduced in the media but I recognized that I never heard about it again. The man behind the idea is the 19 year old Boyan Slat and here is what he plans, to solve the problem of endless plastic garbage in the oceans. The motto of the project is “Why are we going to the garbage, when it comes to us!”

So the idea is to collect the plastic passively by putting barriers with a net of three meter into the water. The barriers are fixed with buoys and by some connections to the ocean ground but still flexible enough to overcome heavy storms. The net is made of diverse layers of polyethylene and neoprene because even small plastic items with the size of less than five millimeter can be collected by them. The net is only three meter deep because this is where most of the plastic garbage is swimming due to its light weight. The garbage will be collected at a station which is installed between the barriers and which can filter the sewage water and clean the plastic garbage. The platform should work with renewable energies and autonomous and only once every six weeks a ship could take the collected garbage away so that the project can work with as few emissions as possible.

If you want to learn more or even support the project you can help by donating some money for it. The fundraising campaign is implemented in the website and you can help with as little as €4,50 ($6,10) at The Ocean Cleanup.