110 Million Pounds Of Plastics Collected From World’s Oceans
March 12, 2026
In 2013, when 18-year-old Dutch aerospace engineering student Boyan Slat dreamt up a solution to ocean plastics—and presented it in a TEDx Talk—could he have envisioned that, within hardly a decade’s time, his imaginations would come to fruition at such a scale? Probably. And despite much early skepticism, his project, The Ocean Cleanup, has reportedly retrieved more than 50 million kilograms (110 million pounds) from Earth’s fair waters.
The Ocean Cleanup got off to a rough start wrought with technical difficulties and setbacks, but in due time, Slat and the Ocean Cleanup’s very capable engineers figured out how to keep autonomous robots operational and afloat at sea at length enough to make a serious impact.
Part of what has made the ocean cleanup so effective of late has been research and data showing how and where most plastics are entering the seas. A 2021 study published in the journal Science Advances pinpointed 1,000 rivers as the source of an estimated 80% of plastics found in the ocean.