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The Ocean Cleanup Project has successfully begun picking up trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located between Hawaii and California.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a big collection of trash floating in the Pacific Ocean. According to The Ocean Cleanup, “The GPGP covers an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometers, an area twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France.”

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Picture from: providencetrade.com

The currents of other water ways pull in debris and create the large cluster of trash, causing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

According to CNN Business, “The Ocean Cleanup system is a U-shaped barrier with a net-like skirt that hangs below the surface of the water. It moves with the current and collects faster moving plastics as they float by. Fish and other animals will be able to swim beneath it.”

The founder and CEO of Ocean Cleanup, Boyan Slat, stated, “Today, I am very proud to share with you that we are now catching plastics.”

Model, System 001/B, explained. Photo by: The Ocean Cleanup Project

To reduce the amount of garbage in the ocean that kills many sea creatures, the Ocean Cleanup Project is a solution to the ongoing issue of the pollution in oceans.

Harmful products have been polluting the oceans due to plastic factories, people throwing waste into the water, lost fishing nets from fishermen, etc..

A sea turtle stuck in a ghost net. Photo by: Francis Perez

The invention was created in 2012, but there were many prototypes that were not effective. The Ocean Cleanup’s model, System 001/B, will be followed by a bigger and better model, System 002, which will pick up more trash for a longer period of time.

You can watch the video of the Ocean Cleanup Project’s model being demonstrated here.