On May 11th 2017, Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, the Dutch foundation developing advanced technologies to rid the oceans of plastic, announced a design breakthrough allowing for the cleanup of half the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in just 5 years.

The main idea behind The Ocean Cleanup is to let the ocean currents do the work. An installation of U-shaped screens channels floating plastic to a central point. The concentrated plastic can then be extracted and shipped to shore for recycling into durable products. The improvements involve the introduction of a mobile, or drifting system.

Rather than fixing the floating screens to the seabed at great depths, The Ocean Cleanup will apply sea anchors to ensure the floating screens move slower than the plastic. Rather than one massive barrier, the improved, modular cleanup system consists of a fleet of screens. More information: http://www.theoceancleanup.com

Subscribe to MOTHERBOARD: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-To-MOTHERBOARD Boyan Slat’s story is not quite that of a 20-year-old Wunderkind who magically found a potential fix to a longstanding problem.

It’s perhaps more accurately described as a combination of personal dedication and trial and error. When going through his old prototypes for a technology that would passively scrub oceans of plastic, he’s almost embarrassed of his early concepts.

“But that’s what science is really,” Slat said. “It’s a work in progress.” The crowdfunding campaign behind Slat’s Ocean Cleanup Project was announced with strong bidding, no matter: “With two million dollars we can make a theoretical concept come true.

” With just two days left in his campaign, Slat successfully collected the funding for his project, bringing him one step closer to realizing a vision of plastic-free oceans.

Read more on MOTHERBOARD: http://bit.ly/Ocean-Clean-Up-Kid Read Now: Welcome to Garbage Patch State – http://bit.ly/Y7Xmv5 Click to watch “Garbage Island” on VICE: http://bit.ly/1DxzpOz

We prefer our products to be unwrapped, they love being naked. When we do decide to wrap them up we want to know that our packaging is having as little effect on the planet as possible.

So not only do we insist on 100% recycled plastic in our pots and bottles, but we have also worked hard on a facility to help you to bring back your used pots to be made into pots once again.

It’s as simple as scrubbing them clean and popping them to your local store where they are whisked back to the factory at Poole. Once there our supplier helpfully grinds them up and makes them into brand new pots again, it doesn’t get much more closed loop than that.