The Ocean Clean up secures full funding for prototype

Manufacturing, deployment and testing of the North Sea prototype is budgeted at €1.5 million, a third of which is contributed by world-renowned dredging and marine contractor Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis).

The Government of The Netherlands, through the ministries of Infrastructure & the Environment and Economic Affairs, has committed to contributing another €500,000. The remainder of the funding has been pledged by an anonymous philanthropist.

The North Sea prototype is an important step towards the world’s first deployment of an ocean cleanup system, and will be the first test of the design at sea. The prototype spans 100m and will be deployed in the Dutch North Sea, 23km / 12NM off the coast of Scheveningen harbor – The Hague for one year. The objective of the test is to monitor and analyse behavior of a floating barrier segment in all weather conditions, including gale force winds and waves.

By 2020, The Ocean Cleanup aims to deploy a 100 km-long structure between Hawaii and California. Analysis suggests this array will be able to clean up about half the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in ten years’ time. The system makes use of very long floating barriers, which act as an artificial coastline, passively collecting and concentrating the ocean trash, powered by the natural ocean currents.

Boyan Slat, CEO and founder, The Ocean Cleanup, said: “Making sure the floating barriers are able to withstand the harshest of conditions is fundamental to the success of our mission. I am grateful to our supporters for enabling us to perform these critical sea trials. It is this kind of support which is crucial in our preparation for the largest cleanup in history.”