TEDx Talk: How the Oceans ​can Clean ​Themselves

Ocean currents concentrate plastic in five areas in the world: the subtropical gyres, also known as the world’s "ocean garbage patches". Once in these patches, the plastic will not go away by itself.

The challenge of cleaning up the gyres is the plastic pollution spreads across millions of square kilometers and travels in all directions. Covering this area using vessels and nets would take tens of thousands of years and cost billions of dollars to complete. How can we use these ocean currents to our advantage? 

Image: Ocean Cleanup
Image source: /www.theoceancleanup.com/

18-year-old Boyan Slat combines environmentalism, entrepreneurism and technology to tackle global issues of sustainability. After diving in Greece, and coming across more plastic bags than fish, he wondered; "why can't we clean this up?"

He was still in secondary school, when he then decided to dedicate half a year of research to understand plastic pollution and the problems associated with cleaning it up.

Working to prove the feasibility of his concept, Boyan Slat currently gives lead to a team of approximately 50 people, and temporarily quit his Aerospace Engineering study to completely focus his efforts on The Ocean Cleanup.

Video source : TEDx Talks 
Images and text source: theoceancleanup.com

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Taxonomy

• Environment
• Pollution
• Aquatic Environment
• Pollution
• Environmental