The Ocean Cleanup has now officially removed more than 100,000 kg of plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP).
Since deployment in August 2021, System 002 (or “Jenny”) has now collected 101,353 kg of plastic over 45 extractions, sweeping an area of ocean of over 3000km2 – comparable to the size of Luxembourg or Rhode Island.
Added to the 7,173 kg of plastic captured by our previous prototype systems, The Ocean Cleanup has now collected 108,526 kg of plastic from the GPGP – more than the combined weight of two and a half Boeing 737-800s, or the dry weight of a space shuttle.
Today we reached an exciting milestone: over 100,000kg of plastic removed from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – more than the combined weight of two and a half Boeing 737-800s. Here's Boyan illustrating what this looks like in terms of plastic we extracted from the GPGP: pic.twitter.com/mTUPggSfEP
— The Ocean Cleanup (@TheOceanCleanup) July 25, 2022
According to the Ocean Cleanup’s 2018 study in which itmapped the patch, the total amount of accumulated plastic is 79,000,000 kg, or 100,000,000 kg if they include the Outer GPGP.
Now that the technology is validated, the organization is ready to move on to the new and expanded System 03, which is expected to capture plastic at a rate potentially 10 times higher than System 002 through a combination of increased size, improved efficiency, and increased uptime.
The transition to System 03 is starting soon.
