Could a teenager save the world's oceans? Student, 19, claims his invention could clean up the seas in just five years

A Dutch teenager has invented a device that he claims could clean up some 20 billion tonnes of plastic waste from the world's oceans.
Boyan Slat, 19, came up with the idea of a series of floating booms and processing platforms designed to collect floating plastic rubbish.
The 'ocean cleanup' concept is designed to capture the floating plastic but allow life like fish and plankton to pass through unharmed, while saving the waste materials to be recycled.

Boyan Slat, 19, came up with the idea of a series of floating booms and processing platforms (pictured) designed to collect floating plastic rubbish

The 'ocean cleanup' concept is designed to capture the floating plastic but allow life like plankton to pass through unharmed, while saving the waste materials to be recycled. The design is self-sufficient and saves energy by being tethered to the sea bed (pictured)

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The Ocean Cleanup Array is an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms will span the radius of a gyre.
The booms act as giant funnels where the angle of the booms effectively 'suck' rubbish in.
The debris enters the platforms, where it will be filtered out of the water and eventually stored in containers until collected for recycling on land.
One of the most significant advantages of using booms instead of nets is that marine life cannot be caught in them.
Furthermore, because the transport of plastic along the booms is driven by the currents, it’s slow enough for organisms to escape.

The engineering student believes that once operational, his device could dramatically reduce the amount of rubbish in the oceans in just five years time.
Millions of tonnes of plastic debris are littering oceans and have accumulated in areas of high concentration called gyres - which are essentially floating rubbish tips.

This litter directly kills millions of aquatic animals annually but also spreads and introduces harmful algae and invasive species as well as man-made pollutants into the food chain, costing governments and organisations millions of dollars to clean up every year, according to Mr Slat.

Mr Slat believes his invention could make up to $500 million a year from recycling the waste collected (pictured) making it a potentially profitable clean-up solution

 

Oceans could clean themselves cheaply by harnessing currents

While he believes humans must end their reliance on disposable plastic items and manage waste responsibly, his innovation could make a big difference to the cleanliness of oceans in the shorter-term.
He proposes fixing sea water processors to the sea bed, which are also attached to the floating platform so that the water can move through them and generate energy.
His concept also includes using floating booms instead of nets to cover vast areas of water effectively, while no mesh and a very low speed, means there will be 'virtually no by-catch' and unfortunate animals getting tangled in nets that are meant to help conserve their habitat.

His concept uses floating booms (pictured) instead of nets to cover wast areas effectively, while no mesh and a very low speed, means there will be 'virtually no by-catch' and unfortunate animals getting tangled in nets

The litter in the oceans directly kills millions of aquatic animals annually (like this bird with a stomach-full of plastic) but also spreads and introduces harmful algae and invasive species as well as man made pollutants into the food chain

Writing on his website, Mr Slat said: 'Although this hypothesis still has to be tested, even the planktonic species - due to their density being close to that of the sea water - may move under the booms along with the water flow.'
In a bid to solve problems of conventional clean-up measures, including rubbish escaping, emissions and high costs, he said his contraptions are 'completely self-supportive' and get their energy from the sun and waves.
'By letting the platforms' wings sway like an actual manta ray, we can ensure contacts of the inlets with the surface, even in the roughest weather,' he said.

Millions of tonnes of plastic debris are littering oceans and have accumulated in areas of high concentration called gyres (pictured by the circles of arrows) which are essentially floating rubbish tips

While Mr Slat (pictured) is now a student at the Delft University of Technology, he came up with the idea while he as at school to win a number of prizes

As well as solving an environmental problem, Mr Slat also believes his invention could make up to $500 million a year from recycling the waste collected.
He said: 'This concept is so efficient, that we estimate that by selling the plastic retrieved from the 5 gyres, we would make in fact more money than the plan would cost to execute. In other words; it may potentially be profitable.'
Mr Slat believes that many people need reminding about the environmental disaster affecting the Earth's oceans.
He said: 'One of the problems with preventive work is that there isn’t any imagery of these ‘garbage patches’ because the debris is dispersed over millions of square kilometres.'
'By placing our arrays however, it will accumulate along the booms, making it suddenly possible to actually visualise the oceanic garbage patches. We need to stress the importance of recycling, and reducing our consumption of plastic packaging,' VR-zone reported.
While Mr Slat is now a student at the Delft University of Technology, he came up with the idea while he as at school to win a number of prizes and the respect of more experiences marine experts.
He has now set up The Ocean Cleanup Foundation to raise funds to develop his innovation.