Boyan Slat closer to cleaning up ocean garbage patches

Dutch eco-activist Boyan Slat designed the ocean clean-up technology that taps sea currents to trap floating trash. Photo: AFP

The Dutch inventor behind a ground-breaking project to remove millions of tonnes of plastics floating in vast ocean “garbage patches” recently unveiled the first prototype of his ambitious sea-cleaning device.

Boyan Slat’s innovative idea – first drawn on a paper napkin when he was still in high school – seeks to use ocean currents to gather up the masses of bottles, plastic bags, flip-flops and other detritus that sully the planet’s waters, eliminating the need for an army of boats to haul them in.