Boyan Slat

Boyan Slat (born 27 July 1994)[1][2] is a Dutch inventor, entrepreneur and aerospace engineering student[3] who works on methods of cleaning plastic waste from the oceans. He designed a passive system for concentrating and catching plastic debris driven by ocean currents. This won a prize for Best Technical Design at Delft University of Technology and he has established a foundation — The Ocean Cleanup — to further develop and eventually implement the technology. Initially, there was little interest, because it would only clean 5% of the plastics in our oceans, but, since his TEDx talk, How the Oceans can Clean Themselves, went viral because of his revolutionary idea, he has attracted thousands of volunteers and $2M of funding for pilot installations.[2][4] In November 2014, he won the Champions of the Earth award of the United Nations Environment Programme.[5]

“Taking care of the world's ocean garbage problem is one of the largest environmental challenges mankind faces today,” Slat stated in a blog post. “Not only will this first cleanup array contribute to cleaner waters and coasts but it simultaneously is an essential step towards our goal of cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This deployment will enable us to study the system's efficiency and durability over time.”

He says, the system, which involves a static platform that passively corrals plastics as wind and ocean currents push debris through 2000-meter booms, will be the longest floating structure ever deployed in the ocean.

The pilot program will be operational for at least two years in the proposed deployment location of Tsushima Island in Japan, where approximately one cubic meter of plastic pollution per person is washed up each year.

References

  1. ↑ Finger, Tobias (24 June 2014). "The Ocean Cleanup – Dieser Student will die Weltmeere vom Plastikmüll befreien" [The Ocean Cleanup: This student wants to rid the seas of plastic waste]. Umwelt [environment] (in German). WiWo Green.
  2. 1 2 Winter, Caroline (16 September 2014). "This Dutch Wunderkind Now Has the Funds to Build His Ocean Cleanup Machine". Bloomberg Businessweek.
  3. ↑ Pabst, Josephine (24 October 2014). "Idee eines 20-Jährigen könnte die Ozeane entmüllen". Die Welt (in German).
  4. ↑ Venema, Vibeke (17 Oct 2014). "The Dutch boy mopping up a sea of plastic". BBC News.
  5. ↑ "2014 Laureate". United Nations Environment Programme. 2014. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
Sailors clean a beach in Garcia

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