Previous tests went less well. In the program News & Co on NPO Radio 1, Slat looked back on a test operation from 2018. “It could not catch plastic. It also broke in two. So that was a very good test, but no success.” When things went wrong several times in a row, Boyat sometimes lost heart. “That we thought: not again!”
longer arms
Now that the test phase of the latest technology, System 002, has been completed, the grab arms can immediately be used to remove plastic from the sea on a large scale, according to The Ocean Cleanup. At the same time, the organization is working on a new method, System 003. This will have even longer floating arms of 2.5 kilometers, so that three times as much plastic can be collected per boat.
The nearly 30,000 pounds of plastic waste collected in the tests included toilet seats, toothbrushes, laundry baskets, shoes and discarded fishing tackle. According to The Ocean Cleanup, this shows that all of humanity is involved in the polluted seas.
Fish among plastic
The project has also been criticized in recent years. Research by the organization showed that the floating arms not only remove plastic, but also large amounts of fish, crabs and squid from the sea. “They spend tens of millions of dollars figuring out how to fish,” a biologist told the American technology site earlier Gizmodo.
According to Slat, this bycatch is not too bad. “We’ve actually developed the world’s worst fishing net. If you see the videos of the barrels clattering on the deck right now, you can see that it’s pretty much just plastic. It’s really 0.1 percent.” He also says that the organization continues to work on ways to conserve marine life as much as possible.
NOS op 3 previously made this video about Boyan Slat, the founder of The Ocean Cleanup:
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