Plastic pollution threatens environments on land and sea, with engineers and scientists playing an important role in developing and scaling technologies to extract vast quantities of plastic.
By Joseph Harding
Boyan Slat was just 18 years old when he founded The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch-based non-profit which ambitiously aims to remove 90 per cent of floating ocean plastic by 2040.
The Ocean Cleanup has prevented more than 29 million kg of river plastics from reaching the sea, and its combined river and ocean systems have intercepted more than 40 million kg in total.
In the video above, create examines the engineering behind the company’s technologies, including the long U-shaped barrier used to scrape up plastics when moved through the water.
You can also read how three companies are minimising the impact of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans.
Image and video credit: The Ocean Cleanup
Go deeper – this webinar recording explains why debris transport in rivers is a problem both civil and environmental engineers must tackle.
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