Cleaning up the garbage patches

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch poses a severe threat to marine life, ecosystems, and human health. Animals often mistake plastic for food, while ghost nets—making up 46% of the patch—cause deadly entanglements. As plastic floats at sea, it breaks down into microplastics that are impossible to remove and can enter the food chain through bioaccumulation, potentially contaminating seafood. Beyond ecological and health impacts, microplastics also disrupt oceanic carbon sequestration, with estimated annual losses ranging from 15 to 30 million metric tons of carbon.

We captured our first plastic from the GPGP in 2019, and by 2021, our technology was proven. Since then, we’ve removed hundreds of tons of trash from the GPGP—mostly plastic coming from fishing gears.

In 2022, we began transitioning to System 03, upgrading components while continuing cleanup. By August 2023, System 03 was fully deployed to the GPGP.

Since 2024, we begun working on optimizing our efficiency even more; through hotspot hunting, we can address our cleanup efforts in areas with higher quantity of plastic, while decreasing our environmental impact.

MANAGING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

We aim to rid the oceans of plastic in the most responsible way possible. Our mission is intended to benefit the ocean and its inhabitants, so we place protection of the marine environment and mitigation of any negative impact of our operations at the forefront of our ocean cleaning operations.

System 03, our current ocean cleaning technology, has deterrents, cameras, escape aids, and other features to minimize risk to marine wildlife. We also have trained independent observers on board the vessels each trip to monitor any interactions with protected species (such as turtles or whales) in the area. Monitoring data has confirmed that our operations are having only minimal effects on the environment.

In the gallery below, you can learn more about how we keep marine wildlife safe during our cleaning operations. You can also read more about our environmental protection measures in greater detail in this update.

Net Environment Benefit Assessment

At The Ocean Cleanup as we developed System 03, we took steps to minimize its environmental impact. But we also needed to know whether this mission was worth it or not.

A Net Environmental Benefit Assessment was carried by our Environmental and Social Affairs team to assess the impact of System 03 at sea while conducting cleanup operations. The groundbreaking findings from this collaborative research showed that the benefits of cleaning the GPGP outweighed potential environmental costs, including greenhouse gas emissions and ecosystem disruptions.

In short, current available knowledge shows that The Ocean Cleanup’s efforts in the GPGP deliver an environmental net benefit. The dangers of floating plastic extend far beyond visible pollution—they contribute to the breakdown into microplastics, which not only contaminate marine ecosystems but also hinder the ocean’s ability to absorb and export carbon. In fact, microplastics in the GPGP are projected to reduce annual carbon sequestration by a staggering 15 to 30 million metric tons. In contrast, the carbon footprint of The Ocean Cleanup’s operations is significantly smaller, estimated at just 0.4 to 2.9 million metric tons per year. This means that the environmental gains from removing plastic outweigh the emissions generated in the process.

hotspot hunting

The fundamental challenge of cleaning up the ocean garbage patches is that ocean plastic pollution is highly diluted, spanning millions of square kilometers. Therefore, we must target areas with high concentration of floating plastic where System 03 can make the largest impact.

We’re continually working to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations in the GPGP. By actively tracking where plastic hotspots form, we can direct our vessels to these areas more efficiently. This means collecting more plastic and cutting costs—all while reducing our emissions. With advanced hotspot hunting, we can clean the entire patch cutting in a fraction of the time.