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ABOUT

WE ARE
THE OCEAN CLEANUP

INTERCEPTING TRASH IN RIVERS AND CLEANING UP THE OCEANS

The Ocean Cleanup's mission is to develop and scale technologies, to rid the oceans of plastic. We aim to clean up 90% of floating ocean plastic by 2040.

We are a non-profit project with a clear mission, and a clear end goal: to put ourselves out of business. Once the oceans are clean, we hope our services will no longer be needed.

THE IMPACT OF PLASTIC POLLUTION

ENVIRONMENT

Over 900 species have been found impacted by ocean plastic pollution, including 100 endangered species.

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ECONOMY

It is estimated that marine ecosystems provide benefits of up to $50 trillion per year through their ecosystem services (Constanza et al., 2014). Plastic pollution is estimated to reduce the value of these ecosystem services by $500 to $2500 billion per year (Beaumont et al., 2019).

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HEALTH

Plastic in the environment not only impacts sea life, but it also carries toxic pollutants into the food chain – a food chain which ends with us humans.

Crew sorting trash on deck at The Ocean Cleanup

CLEANING THE OCEAN

Plastic that makes its way out to the middle of the ocean can get stuck in "garbage patches", located in areas of circulating currents known as oceanic gyres. Plastic stuck in these gyres will not go away by itself and needs to be cleaned up to limit its environmental impact now. Many marine animals live or travel through these areas, often mistaking the plastic for food, or becoming entangled.

We are currently cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located between Hawaii and California and estimated to contain 100,000,000 kilograms of trash dispersed over an area twice the size of Texas, or three times the size of France.

RIVERS

Rivers are the arteries that carry trash from land to the ocean. Through our research, we have identified 1000 rivers responsible for emitting around 80% of pollution into our oceans annually. Although 1000 rivers is a large number, it is only 1% of all rivers in the world – and we aim to tackle each one.

Every river is different, and we have developed a family of Interceptor solutions to tackle a variation of river characteristics. We intend to continue expanding our portfolio of Interceptors as we tackle more rivers.
Interceptor Tender in Jamaica, Kingston Harbor

"When people say something is impossible, the sheer absoluteness of that statement should be a motivation to investigate further.”

- Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO
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FUNDRAISE FOR CLEANER OCEANS

Activate your network of friends and family to spread awareness for plastic pollution and raise funds to help clean up plastic.

START FUNDRAISING
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GET
THE FACTS

New to The Ocean Cleanup? Want to know more about ocean plastic pollution: where it is, how much is out there, and where it comes from? You can find all the answers here.

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