In 2013, Boyan Slat a young entrepreneur from the Netherlands came up with an idea to clean the ocean and eradicate plastic. Initially, he was told that you are not going to achieve anything and it is a waste of time. But after endless emails to big giant companies and trying to raise money, he finally dropped out of school against his parents will and gave his full focus on the project. Boyan is also an inventor and was credited for launching water rockets simultaneously when he was 14.
With 300 euros he registered the company “The ocean cleanup”. Gradually he was able to raise money and other investors also started showing interest. Now the company is financed by big influential people in the tech industry, including co-founder of PayPal and chief executive of SalesForce.
The ocean cleanup mission is to develop advanced technology to eradicate plastic waste from the ocean. The company started its one system operation in mid of 2018 and is planning to make use of additional systems until it achieves full-scale development by 2020.
The floating boom system, with the help of another system, will work in patches around the ocean. Each boom is estimated to trap up to 15000 pounds of plastic per year, in the great pacific garbage patch.
No other company has invested or started an initiative to match what Ocean Cleanup project is trying to achieve. Projects like these will help us sustain and make the earth free of pollution and waste.
