The Ocean Cleanup organization has been tackling the Great Pacific Garbage Patch for the past two years and has now deployed their vast new System 03 for the first time. It's nearly three times larger than their previous systems and, amazingly, it's capable of cleaning an area the size of a football field every five seconds.
This follows testing of their two smaller systems - which have already succeeded in removing 275 tons of plastic from the Garbage Patch since 2021 - and has partly been enabled by a $25m donation earlier this year by Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb.
The arrival of System 03 - the largest plastic capture system ever developed for use in the ocean - marks a huge leap forward for the Dutch CEO Boyan Slat and his team, and their mission of ridding the oceans of at least 90 percent of the plastic trash by 2040.
The Ocean CleanUp's System 03 consists of a floating barrier approximately 1.4 miles (2.2 km) long, which is towed between two slow-moving vessels. This barrier suspends a screen extending 13 feet (4 meters) below the surface of the water, where most floating plastic is encountered.
Once the trash is removed, an onboard crew sorts it to ensure the plastic is put to good use, by recycling it into sustainable new products.
It's a remarkable, heroic effort by this fledgling non-profit and should be wildly applauded by us all.