A nonprofit organization aimed at cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch made a stop in San Francisco on Friday to deliver a message.
After six years of trying to find a solution to the garbage patch, which is now twice the size of the state of Texas, Ocean Cleanup CEO Boyan Slat said the organization has found one.
“It’s a huge day. We’ve been working at this for so many years, and we finally have a solution that works,” he said. “The only thing standing between us and a clean ocean is money.”
The nonprofit has been developing a GPS tracker that emulates how plastic moves in the ocean. It is also planning to use drones with artificial intelligence-powered cameras to scan areas and detect hot spots.
It’s something Slat said could help clean up the ocean in 10 years for $7.5 billion, if not sooner.
“There are numbers out there that this problem is costing the world up to $2.5 trillion,” he said. “So I think this should be a no-brainer. Cleaning the ocean is a lot cheaper and better for the world.”
Ocean Cleanup’s strategy would consist of intersecting plastic and garbage flowing in rivers before making it to sea and cleaning up what has already been accumulated in the ocean.
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Skat added that the solution could be funded by 1% of the annual revenue from the world plastic producers.
Over the years, the nonprofit has hauled close to one million pounds of trash.
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“Whether the ocean actually gets cleaned is really now up to the world to decide. We’re ready, and now we’re looking for the support,” Skat said.
