A Teen’s Ocean-Saving Invention

A huge vortex of plastic waste and other debris twice the size of Texas is floating between California and Hawaii. It’s called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and it’s the biggest of five of these ocean garbage patches drifting in the world’s seas. In 2013, an 18-year-old from the Netherlands named Boyan Slat decided to take action. He founded the Ocean Cleanup project and began designing a 2,000-foot-long floating boom (which looks like a giant pool noodle) to trap all that trash. Five years later, it has finally been put to the test in the San Francisco Bay. If successful, the group plans to tow it another 1,000 miles to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch this month. The floating barrier has a 10-foot-long underwater screen to corral debris, while allowing marine life to swim underneath. Boats then collect the trash and bring it to shore. Each year, more than 8 million tons of plastic enter the seas, putting wildlife at risk. “For 60 years, mankind has been putting plastic into the oceans,” says Slat. “We’re taking it back out again.”