During System 001's 4 months offshore, most key features of the cleanup system were confirmed. We also encountered some challenges. Subscribe to our channel: [ Ссылка ]

These challenges became the subject of a thorough root cause analysis. We now understand what happened and plan to relaunch in the patch within months.

Read the report: [ Ссылка ]

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In September, we launched our first system, with the aim of achieving proof of technology and commencing cleanup. Twenty years after the discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, this was the first time a system was deployed to start to clean it up. We did this after completing hundreds of scale model tests and a series of nearshore prototypes.

Yet, when launching the system, we knew, and had to accept, that uncertainty remained. This makes sense, as something like this has never been done before. Especially when considering the interaction between the system and the plastic, there was no way to test it before deploying a cleanup system in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Hence, we must learn by doing, developing the technology in an iterative fashion.

During the first four months that the system was offshore, we were able to confirm many of the key features of the cleanup system. We also encountered some unscheduled learning opportunities; notably 1) the system hasn’t been able to retain the plastic it caught, and 2) the floater suffered from a structural failure, causing an 18-meter end section to disconnect from the rest of the system, just before the end of 2018.

Following the structural failure, we decided to bring the system back to land as quickly as possible, where we began an intensive root cause analysis process. Over the past two months, we collected as much data as possible and analyzed it with the purpose of understanding what caused the two known problems. Since understanding a problem is half the solution, this root cause analysis forms the crucial basis for upgrading the design before the relaunch in the coming months. In this post we’ll explain the results of this analysis.

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Trash accumulates in five ocean garbage patches, the largest one being the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located between Hawaii and California. If left to circulate, the plastic will impact our ecosystems, health, and economies. Solving it requires a combination of closing the source, and cleaning up what has already accumulated in the ocean.

The ocean is big. Cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch using conventional methods – vessels and nets – would take thousands of years and tens of billions of dollars to complete. Our passive systems are estimated to remove 50% of the Great Pacific Garbage patch in just five years, and at a fraction of the cost.

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