{"id":798552,"date":"2026-05-15T16:23:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T16:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/798552\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T16:23:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T16:23:22","slug":"the-man-who-wants-to-stop-trash-from-flowing-into-the-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/798552\/","title":{"rendered":"The man who wants to stop trash from flowing into the ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What Californian hasn\u2019t walked along one of our superb beaches only to stumble upon water bottles, cigarette butts, clamshell burger boxes and all manner of nasty plastic trash? We sigh, and plod on.<\/p>\n

A Dutch teenager named Boyan Slat experienced similar dismay on a family scuba diving trip about 15 years ago in the Greek islands. But instead of accepting the disheartening ubiquity of plastic pollution, Slat set about looking for a solution.<\/p>\n

His quest to rid the oceans of plastic would eventually focus on heavily polluted rivers (the source of an estimated 80% of the plastic that pollutes oceans worldwide), including the concrete flood channels that spew countless tons of trash into the Pacific in Los Angeles County. <\/p>\n

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A huge source of ocean plastic: river plastic<\/p>\n

The work brought him to Long Beach this week, to help announce the planned deployment of two mechanized trash \u201cinterceptors\u201d that will trap tons of plastic and other detritus near the mouths of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers. When deployed sometime before the summer of 2028, the devices should drastically reduce the foul stew plastic pollution that for years has poured into the Pacific Ocean in Long Beach and Seal Beach \u2014 ensnaring birds, fish and other sea creatures while creating an eyesore on our beaches.<\/p>\n

My colleague Lila Seidman spent a day reporting at the rivers and much more. <\/a><\/p>\n

Slat\u2019s nonprofit, the Ocean Cleanup, plans to deploy the plastic-catching systems before the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, making them the second and third trash interceptors in Los Angeles County. The organization installed a plastics-blocker in Ballona Creek near Marina del Rey<\/a> in October 2022. That device has captured 206 tons of garbage that otherwise would have ended up in the Pacific.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy bringing these interceptors here now to the two other rivers, we should be able to call plastic pollution in Santa Monica Bay and San Pedro Bay a thing of the past,\u201d Slat said in a phone interview Thursday, as he paused during a run near the Santa Monica Pier. \u201cIt\u2019s something to look forward to.\u201d Los Angeles County will operate the new interceptors at a cost of between $2 million and $4 million a year, Ocean Cleanup officials said.<\/p>\n

The focus of the organization has evolved substantially over the last decade. When I first interviewed Slat in 2018<\/a>, he was about to deploy a massive cleanup device in the middle of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch<\/a>, the largest of multiple rotating ocean \u201cgyres\u201d that attract waste like giant drains.<\/p>\n

Slat and his team suffered a number of humbling setbacks with the mid-ocean trash collection effort. One early system didn\u2019t effectively collect plastic and then broke apart in a ferocious storm. At other points, the nonprofit \u201ccame close to financial death,\u201d he said. \u201cAt times it\u2019s been like, how on earth are we going to make this work?\u201d <\/p>\n

Los Angeles is just the start<\/p>\n

Probably nothing will entirely eliminate plastic in the ocean, given the ubiquity of humans and the tendency of some to thoughtlessly toss trash in or near the water. But Slat\u2019s Netherlands-based organization \u2014 with an annual budget of about $50 million and about 200 full-time employees \u2014 will not relent in its quest. In recent years, it has focused its work around 30 cities globally that spew a large portion of the waste into the ocean.<\/p>\n

The Ocean Cleanup eventually intends to trap and remove plastic in 200 cities worldwide, Slat said. Rivers in the developing world \u2014 in places like Malaysia, Jamaica, Guatemala and Indonesia \u2014 have been an even bigger source of plastic pollution, given substandard waste management practices. So the Ocean Cleanup also has installed trash interceptors in rivers in those nations.<\/p>\n

The dream of a clean ocean<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of his crusade, Slat has heard from doubters who wonder whether it\u2019s possible to engineer a plastic cleanup in the midst of powerful seas. Others have called for more focus on reducing the production of plastic products and on improving waste collection. But Slat insists that, in addition to those efforts, the world must focus on removing the plastic already swamping oceans, killing sea life and even making its way up the food chain into humans.<\/p>\n

He says the new focus on removing plastic closer to the source, in rivers, has been a big success. And the Ocean Cleanup now has a design \u2014 featuring a trash-catching boom that stretches 1.3 miles \u2014 that successfully captures plastic, Slat said. His team is putting the finishing touches on a drone-assisted technology that will help to best position the cleanup system in the parts of the ocean with the highest concentration of plastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything works now. We know what to do,\u201d Slat said. \u201cIt\u2019s just about execution. Execution and funding. Humanity now has all the tools it needs to get back to a clean ocean.\u201d <\/p>\n

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