Case Study

The Ocean Clean Up

Harnessing waves to collect garbage

Partners Involved: Ocean, The Ocean Clean-Up
Type of Partnership: Win-Win for Public and Planet
Partnership Models: Waste Manager, Moneymaker

Healthy oceans provide immeasurable benefits for the Public, ranging from food, fishermen livelihoods and tourism; and benefits the vast eco-systems and millions of species below water. Cleaning the ocean using traditional methods would cost thousands of years and tens of billions of dollars. The Ocean Cleanup costs a fraction of the cost and time.

Ocean garbage patches are vast but dispersed. Cleanup using conventional methods – vessels and nets – would take thousands of years and tens of billions of dollars to complete.

The Ocean Cleanup uses advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic.
Using an artificial coastline costing EUR 317 million, the Ocean Cleanup passively concentrates garbage, using natural ocean currents to move and concentrate the debris without any external energy source. Theoretically, one passive system could remove about half the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 10 years.

Thanks to the orientation of barriers moored to the seabed, plastic is slowly pushed towards the center of the array, becoming even more concentrated. And Instead of using nets, The Ocean Cleanup uses solid screens to catch the floating plastic while allowing marine life to pass underneath the barrier with the current.

A central collection point extracts and buffers the debris before it is shipped to land. By recycling the debris and selling the semi-finished product directly to B2C companies, The Ocean Clean Up is aiming to make their operation fully self-financed and sustainable.

SDGs Targeted: SDG 8 Decent Work & Economic Growth, SDG 14 Life Below Water

Links & Sources:

Share this post

Case Study

The Ocean Clean Up

Harnessing waves to collect garbage

Partners Involved: Ocean, The Ocean Clean-Up
Type of Partnership: Win-Win for Public and Planet
Partnership Models: Waste Manager, Moneymaker

Healthy oceans provide immeasurable benefits for the Public, ranging from food, fishermen livelihoods and tourism; and benefits the vast eco-systems and millions of species below water. Cleaning the ocean using traditional methods would cost thousands of years and tens of billions of dollars. The Ocean Cleanup costs a fraction of the cost and time.

Ocean garbage patches are vast but dispersed. Cleanup using conventional methods – vessels and nets – would take thousands of years and tens of billions of dollars to complete.

The Ocean Cleanup uses advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic.
Using an artificial coastline costing EUR 317 million, the Ocean Cleanup passively concentrates garbage, using natural ocean currents to move and concentrate the debris without any external energy source. Theoretically, one passive system could remove about half the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 10 years.

Thanks to the orientation of barriers moored to the seabed, plastic is slowly pushed towards the center of the array, becoming even more concentrated. And Instead of using nets, The Ocean Cleanup uses solid screens to catch the floating plastic while allowing marine life to pass underneath the barrier with the current.

A central collection point extracts and buffers the debris before it is shipped to land. By recycling the debris and selling the semi-finished product directly to B2C companies, The Ocean Clean Up is aiming to make their operation fully self-financed and sustainable.

SDGs Targeted: SDG 8 Decent Work & Economic Growth, SDG 14 Life Below Water

Links & Sources:

Share this post