This campaign has been closed after successfully reaching its target. 

We want to thank all our Indiegogo supporters for their contributions. Your help to fund our feasibility research has been proven fundamental to our project. We owe our progress largely to your support in the early stages of our project. 

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Thank you.

18-year-old Boyan Slat came up with a concept that may be able to remove vast amounts of plastics from the oceans.

Now, together with a group of students, engineers, oceanographers and industry experts, he has set out to investigate and demonstrate its viability and feasibility.

'I don't know if it's possible, and that's exactly the reason I'm doing it.'

THE PROBLEM

The world's oceans are polluted with millions of tonnes of plastic.

Plastic reaches the oceans mostly from land through rivers and waterways, and then accumulates in five areas of high concentration, called oceanic gyres. 

Not only do such 'garbage patches' directly kill millions of aquatic animals annually. They also spread harmful algae and other invasive species, and serves as a transport medium for pollutants (including PCBs and DDT), which accumulate in the food chain.

Plastic pollution costs governments, companies and individuals millions of dollars in damages per year, due to loss in tourism, vessel damages and (inefficient) beach clean-ups.

THE SOLUTION

The ultimate solution to plastic pollution is clear: we need to close the tap by ending our reliance on disposable plastic items/packaging; we need proper waste management globally; and we need to become more aware of the problems our garbage is creating. Solving this massive problem will require dramatic changes at many levels- legislative, industrial, and individual.

However, even if we close the tap, we still need to clean up the massive quantities of plastic garbage already contaminating our oceans.

THE CONCEPT

Current ideas to remediate the gyres are basically all derivatives of ships and nets that fish for plastic. Not only would these cleanups take an enormous amount of time, and carry astronomical operational costs, but would also kill or injure a significant amount of sea life and would not collect the smallest and even more harmful particles. 

Use your enemy to your advantage

Solution: Why move through the oceans, if the oceans can move through you? 
Fix the sea water processors to the sea bed, and save vast amounts of funds, manpower and emissions.

Smart use of booms

Furthermore there is a huge variety in debris sizes. 

Problems: A clean-up operation would generate significant emissions and in high seas a great deal of plastic would escape.

Boyan Slat wishes to confirm all assumptions made in his concept, and for that he and his global team is looking for a research budget.

With $80,000, we can cover all estimated costs to scientifically prove the concept's feasibility. Our research includes 35 research topics in the fields of engineering, oceanography, (geo)physics, ecology, finance, maritime law and recycling.

By (successfully) finishing this all-important study, we can continue with an open ocean pilot, followed by the actual full-scale execution of The Ocean Cleanup.

The main challenges lie in the scale and environmental conditions. If, due to these challenges, the concept turns out to be infeasible, further research efforts shall be directed towards adapting the concept for river deltas and coastal areas.

However, even if we can prove feasibility, we will still direct part of our resources towards developing plastic interception technologies, because we believe the tap has to be closed before a gyre cleanup should be commissioned.

 
Art pieces are made by Helen Retynsky Kamins.

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