A new technology has been developed to clean the ocean of debris

In October 2023, the creators tested a new ocean clean-up system, System 03, on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The new system is at least three times more powerful than all previous technologies and can clean an area the size of a football field every five seconds to rid the ocean of accumulated plastic. 

The developer of System 03 is The Ocean Cleanup, a non-governmental engineering organisation in the Netherlands. The system consists of a floating barrier approximately 2.2 kilometres long that is held between two slow-moving vessels. The barrier itself is submerged under 4 metres of water. This is the depth at which most plastic is found. 

System 03 is the third clean-up version that this company has produced. Between 2021 and 2023, they were used to remove more than 250,000kg of plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. 

The new version of the system moves at a slow speed, comparable to a leisurely human step. It uses monitoring data and artificial intelligence modelling to help the system move towards the most plastic-contaminated areas. All rubbish is guided by special wings to the system's Retention Zone (which is a huge bag). Once the Retention Zone is completely full, it is dragged to one of the vessels and the plastic is unloaded onto the deck for sorting and packaging. The emptied system is then submerged again and the process starts all over again. 

All the plastic collected is recycled and used to create new “green” products. For example, The Ocean Cleanup has teamed up with Kia to utilize the found plastic in new electric cars. 

The main new feature of the system is MASH: marine animals safety hatch. It is located inside the Retention Zone, which has underwater surveillance cameras. If any animal accidentally enters, the MASH is activated. It blocks any further entry into the system, while opening an exit hatch through which the animal is guaranteed to swim out. 

Unfortunately, System 03's efforts are not enough to single-handedly clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The company estimates that such a massive cleanup requires an entire fleet or a dozen new systems. But in the future, it could become a model for the fleet that is sorely needed to finish the job. 

Various technologies for cleaning the water surfaces from garbage using vessels have been implemented for a long time. For example, the Moscow fleet includes 30 vessels that annually collect more than 500 tonnes of floating rubbish, eliminate pollution and clean the bottom ground.

Unsplash / Dustan Woodhouse / Dustan Woodhouse