Turning Off the Tap on Plastic
Plastic/is one of the major causes of ocean pollution. While he was still a high school student/in the Netherlands,/Boyan Slat decided to do something/about it.
1
In 2011,/when I was 16,/I went diving in Greece. I was excited/to experience the beautiful ocean. However,/it was totally different from my expectations:/I saw more plastic waste than fish. I asked myself,/“Why can’t we just clean this up?” Maybe I was being naive,/but I decided to give it a try.
By 2013,/I had founded an NPO,/The Ocean Cleanup. Our mission is/to remove plastic from the oceans. Our target is a huge area/in the North Pacific Ocean,/one of the major sites of plastic waste accumulation.
After some difficulties,/we got our system to work/in 2021. Two boats collect plastic/by pulling a barrier through the water. The waste is pulled out/and taken to shore for recycling.
We are still at the pilot stage,/but we are making progress. We’ve removed more than 0.2 percent of the plastic/in the target area. We still don’t know/exactly how long the project will take. However,/at this rate/it will take us 500 years. There must be a better way.
Plastic/is one of the major causes of ocean pollution. While he was still a high school student/in the Netherlands,/Boyan Slat decided to do something/about it.
1
In 2011,/when I was 16,/I went diving in Greece. I was excited/to experience the beautiful ocean. However,/it was totally different from my expectations:/I saw more plastic waste than fish. I asked myself,/“Why can’t we just clean this up?” Maybe I was being naive,/but I decided to give it a try.
By 2013,/I had founded an NPO,/The Ocean Cleanup. Our mission is/to remove plastic from the oceans. Our target is a huge area/in the North Pacific Ocean,/one of the major sites of plastic waste accumulation.
After some difficulties,/we got our system to work/in 2021. Two boats collect plastic/by pulling a barrier through the water. The waste is pulled out/and taken to shore for recycling.
We are still at the pilot stage,/but we are making progress. We’ve removed more than 0.2 percent of the plastic/in the target area. We still don’t know/exactly how long the project will take. However,/at this rate/it will take us 500 years. There must be a better way.