Every year, millions of tons of plastic enter the oceans, primarily from rivers. And the plastic that’s afloat within the oceans isn’t going away by itself. To effectively solve the problem, we need to both halt the trash flow from rivers and remove legacy plastics from the oceans at the same time. The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organisation, developing and scaling technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic with its aim to put itself out of business once the oceans are clean.
Research shows most of the plastic in the gyres (by mass) is made up of larger debris. By removing the plastic while most of it is still large, it is prevented from breaking down into dangerous microplastics. The Ocean Cleanup’s aim is to have removed 90% of floating ocean plastic by 2040.
As part of Worldpack’s ESG goals, we are always looking for initiatives and projects that share our values and that are doing an amazing job for our planet. We are delighted that we were able to support The Ocean Clean Up with a donation of €5,000 and are continuing to look at this space – as you can too. The Ocean Cleanup project has a clever dashboard that shows where its solutions are on the seas and in rivers. You can see it here: https://theoceancleanup.com/dashboard/