More than a decade ago, Boyan Slat set out to clear plastic already drifting through the Pacific Ocean.
Now, the Dutch engineer’s nonprofit appears to be making more progress with a different tactic: keeping that waste from reaching the sea in the first place.
What happened?
Slat started Ocean Cleanup when he was just 18, with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch as an early focus. But as CleanTechnica noted, the sheer scale of that floating pollution pushed the organization toward an upstream strategy instead.
That shift has led the group to roll out solar-powered “Interceptor” systems that catch trash in rivers and creeks before it can be carried into the ocean…