Forces of Nature - Boyan Slat

"Human history is basically a list of things that couldn’t be done, and then were done.”

- Boyan Slat

(Photo: The Ocean Cleanup)

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Boyan, who was born in Delft, The Netherlands was 17 years old when he founded the ‘The Ocean Cleanup’. At 19 years old after intensive planning, leaving university and building a team of 100 professional volunteers, he proved his idea to be feasible. Together they took numerous sea expeditions, covering fifty big questions on engineering, oceanography, ecology, finance and recycling and were finally ready to present the idea to the world. This took the form of a 528-page study, hard-backed by 100% plastic that they had recycled from the ocean, of course.

(Video: TED) At 20, he raised 2 million dollars through crowdfunding and was awarded the Champions of the Earth award by the UN Environment Programme, whilst also being recognised as one of the 20 Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs Worldwide. Since then, along with his team, he has raised a further 10 million dollars and deployed a prototype of the invention in the north sea, named Boomy McBoomface in true ocean research style. And it goes on. In his TED talk where he presented his feasibility study, Boyan said: “Until I can look over the bow of a ship and see the awesome sights of The Ocean Cleanup array around me, I vow to continue with this project.”

(Photo: The Ocean Cleanup)

The Problem The Ocean Cleanup have reported that over 5 trillion pieces of plastic currently litter the ocean, with eight million tonnes added each year.

To illustrate what that means for wildlife, Boyan says that over 100,000 mammals and over 1 million seabirds die each year, in mistaking plastic for food, ingesting toxic chemicals or getting caught in ocean rubbish. Plastic, such as bottles that take an estimated 450 years to biodegrade are an obvious harm, but even those that do biodegrade like a plastic bag with a lifespan of around 20 years, releases toxic chemicals in the process. It’s so serious for sea life, that a study by Dr Van Sebille, a researcher at Imperial College London stated that 90% of all seabirds have swallowed plastic - and that by 2050, it's virtually certain that any bird found dead will have plastic in its stomach

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"A pristine ocean doesn't exist anymore," - Dr Van Sebille in an interview with the BBC

The Pacific Trash Vortex Also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, this is a concentrated collection of rubbish described as a 'plastic soup' that has has been discovered floating in the Pacific Ocean's gyre, currently twice the size of France. Gyre - a circular ocean current formed by the Earth's wind patterns and the forces created by the rotation of the planet - National Geographic The reason it has collected in this way is because of the gyre- the currents and winds have circled it into this area. There are five other known rubbish 'vortexes' in the worlds oceans.

The Ocean Cleanup When deciding on an alternative to the small scale solutions of fishing plastic out of the oceans on vessels with nets, Boyan Slat asked the question, "why move through the oceans if the oceans can move through you?" The team have created a theoretical structure that they call The Ocean Cleanup Array. It acts like an artificial coastline, capturing virtually any type of debris whilst letting sea life pass through as no nets are involved. It's a 'passive' system, relying on the waves to do the work, so the small amount of energy needed for the structure can be powered by solar panels. Plastic screens that come from the long tube-like barriers at sea level, use the oceans natural currents to attract floating plastic. Because they flow in line with the currents, they allow for animals and plants to pass through. The plastic then travels to the centre of the structure, condenses and can be collected every six weeks or so. If all goes to plan, they want to build this structure at 100km in length. This, they say "could remove about half the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 10 years, at a fraction of the cost [of the current alternatives that they say would take thousands of years]". Find out more about the technical details of the structure at their website: https://www.theoceancleanup.com/technology/

(Photo: The Ocean Cleanup/Erwin Zwart) The project, like any other ground breaking idea has faced it's share of failures, criticisms and changes along the way, but the determination of Boyan Slat and his team to get this right and make a huge positive impact, leaves us with a phenomenal amount of hope and excitement for this amazing young entrepreneur! Watch the spine-tingling first stages of the journey below, and watch out for the next stage of the project, landing on 11th May over at https://www.theoceancleanup.com/.