People Stories

Update: Remember the Young Man With a Plan to Rid Oceans of Plastic?

His massive plan is scheduled to launch this summer

Do you remember the teenager who six years ago invented a machine that he said could get rid of the plastic that was gathering in the ocean? Well, just in time for Earth Day, the young Dutch genius announced that he is almost ready to launch his ground-breaking initiative designed to purge the seas of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

This patch is a massive island of trash drifting halfway between California and Hawaii. Over a trillion pieces of debris have collected there because of the swirling vortex of current—a floating mass roughly twice the size of Texas. After discovering the patch in the 90s, scientists said it would take thousands of years to clean it up—but Boylan Slat said in his TEDx talk that he could do it in less than ten, if he could get his special machinery built.

Though his claim caused many skeptics to raise their eyebrows, Slat dropped out of college so he could bring his plans to life. In addition to crowdfunding $2.2 million for his idea, he […]

More about plastic and water:

Water Warriors and Other People Stories

Summary
Title
Update: Remember the Young Man With a Plan to Rid Oceans of Plastic?
Description

Remember the teen who six years ago invented a machine he said could get rid of plastic gathering in the oceans? Scientists said it would take thousands of years to clean it up - but Boylan Slat said in his TEDx talk he could do it in less than ten, if he could get his special machinery built. Guess what?

Recent Posts

Scathing report released detailing Navy’s handling of Red Hill fuel spill

The Inspector General of the Department of Defense released some scathing reports Thursday over the…

7 days ago

Growing Food Instead of Grass Lawns in California Front Yards

Photo: Morgan Boone, a volunteer with Crop Swap LA, harvested lettuce at the La Salle…

2 weeks ago

LA River restoration connects us back to ‘the life force of our city’

Los Angeles residents at a section of the Los Angeles River cleanup in Los Angeles,…

3 weeks ago

LAist: New study raises questions about heavy metals in fire retardants

Over the past decade, about 67 million gallons of fire retardant have been dropped on…

3 weeks ago

Meadow and watershed restoration in the Golden Trout Wilderness

Photo: Golden Trout Wilderness Seeking blue, seeing gold The Kern Plateau features a chain of…

3 weeks ago

First sighting of salmon in 100 years marks key milestone for California dam removal

For the first time in more than a century, a salmon was observed swimming through Klamath…

4 weeks ago