Stress Testing the Ocean Cleanup System

In September 2018, The Ocean Cleanup in conjunction with partners including AGRU, launched the innovative ocean cleanup system —a 2,000-foot-long large diameter pipe outfitted with a submerged skirt, an array of sensors, solar-powered lights, cameras, and GPS. Its purpose? To clean up the so called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, halfway between Hawaii and California – an area twice the size of Texas with 80.000 thousand metric tonnes of floating plastic, trapped by oceanic currents that are converging in this area. In today’s podcast, we will discuss how polyethylene came to be the material of choice for this extreme application, where the project stands now, and what kind of metrics The Ocean Cleanup is analyzing during this test. Joining the podcast are Yuse Lajiminmuhip, technical copywriter at AGRU America, Melissa Grace, VP of AGRULINE at AGRU America, and Henk van Dalen, project manager at The Ocean Cleanup.