Ocean Cleanup Project's Biggest System Yet Explained

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Just let this sink in for a moment: Scientists estimate that rivers carry 1.15 to 2.41 million tonnes of plastic into our oceans each year. Our excessive plastic usage and the amount of trash we create has resulted in a large accumulation of floating trash, mostly bits of plastic, in the north Pacific ocean known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," or the "trash vortex." It has a surface area of approximately 1.6 million square kilometers, which is twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France. And it's still growing.

There are several initiatives out there that have sailed with bold visions of saving our oceans from plastics, and the Ocean Cleanup Project is one of them. Founded back in 2013, the initiative has most recently deployed its first large-scale system designed to clean up ocean plastics in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, according to a report by New Atlas.

System 002, aka Jenny, explained

The passive design entailed anchoring a big U-shaped floating barrier to the seabed, which collected plastic waste carried into the area by ocean currents. Later versions used a free-floating approach that was again powered by currents, waves, and wind. They created a speed differential with the plastic waste, allowing them to be scooped up as the barrier moved through the water.

But when these passive systems were tested in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it was seen that they weren't successful since the system had a hard time maintaining the necessary speeds to gather up the trash.

Here came Jenny. The team upgraded the system and even added a parachute designed to slow down the barrier and maintain a constant speed.

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Today, Jenny is described as the initiative's first large-scale system, with a barrier that spans 2,640 feet (800 m). The crewed vessels at either end of the U-shaped barrier use active propulsion to tow it through the water at a constant speed of 1.5 knots. The collected plastic is funneled to a retention zone at the far end, and because it is towed by crewed vessels, it can be steered to areas where there is a lot of trash. The Ocean Cleanup Project thinks that this design will be more commercially viable to scale up.

Jenny was deployed for the first time in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch this week and will be subjected to more than 70 tests over the next 60 weeks.

The teams hope that by the end of the tests, the system will demonstrate limited negative environmental impact, no safety issues during operation, as well as realize a significant level of plastic extraction. Overall, Jenny is a significant step toward the Ocean Cleanup Project's goal of removing 90 percent of ocean plastic by 2040.