A revolutionary new device has given our oceans hope, after successfully ridding the Pacific Ocean of 20,000 pounds of trash.
As reported by Business Insider, when Dutch inventor Boyan Slat was just 18 years old, he announced to the world that he was going to rid our planet's oceans of plastic. Now, nearly a decade later, he is one step closer to making good on his promise.
The 27-year-old is the founder of the nonprofit Ocean Cleanup, which is working on removing 90% of plastic floating in our oceans by the year 2040...
After their prototype of a plastic-catching device broke in the water back in 2018 - it seemed that Slat's dream was just too ambitious... but now Ocean Cleanup has revealed their new device, nicknamed Jenny, has worked.
Back in August, the Ocean Cleanup team launched Jenny in an area of the ocean known as "the Great Pacific Garbage Patch" - located between Hawaii and California. This area of sea is believed to be the largest accumulation of ocean plastic on the planet, with Insider reporting that it holds 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic.
I'd never even heard of this until today, and it already makes me feel ashamed to be a human.
But last week, Jenny underwent its final test, as the device was tested with transporting a huge amount of plastic waste back to the shore without malfunctioning. And it worked.
According to Ocean Cleanup, Jenny removed nearly 20,000lbs (9,000kg) of plastic from the Pacific Ocean.
Taking to Twitter to share Jenny's progress, Slat wrote: "Holy mother of god.
"It all worked!!! Massive load. We’ll try to get the footage to land ASAP to share."
So, how does Jenny work? Well...
After receiving literally tens of millions of dollars in funding, the Ocean Cleanup created a device that resembles an artificial coastline - a U-shaped floating barrier that collects and funnels trash into a woven net.
Once the net is full, the crew haul it out of the ocean and empty the trash onto a vessel, and it is brought to shore.
When the plastic is returned to the land, it will be recycled. Ocean Cleanup is not only creating $200 sunglasses out of the former waste, but it also wants to partner with some of the world's biggest consumer brands in an effort to create more recycled products.
All of this is hope - and despite Jenny's incredible efforts, Slat believes it will take five years and 10 Jennys to clean up just 50% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Nevertheless, this is an incredible start! Well done to Slat and the Ocean Cleanup team!