50 plastic-eating machines to clean trash from Pacific Ocean

A Dutch organization is set to install technology systems to remove chunks and chunks of plastic from an infamous part of the Pacific Ocean known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The area, also called the Pacific trash vortex, houses a collection of marine debris (mostly plastic) and accumulates because most of it is not biodegradable. The massive cleansing project headed by nonprofit The Ocean Cleanup hopes to remove 50 percent of the trash in the area in just five years. The idea behind the mission comes from 22-year-old Boyan Slat, Ocean Cleanup’s founder and CEO, who launched a crowdfunding campaign in 2014 with an original design to clean up 42 percent of trash in 10 years for $320 million. But the new and improved design, Slat told Fast Company, is expected to not only clean up more junk, but cut that timespan in half and cost much less than the original design. Read the rest of the article at ajc.com

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