Dutch test 'Ocean Cleanup' plan to collect floating plastic trash

A prototype of a floating barrier to try to collect and clean trash from the world's oceans is pictured in the port of Scheveningen, the Netherlands, June 22, 2016. The Ocean Cleanup /Handout via REUTERS

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch foundation has developed floating barriers to try to collect trash from the world's oceans, and will launch a 100 meter-long prototype in the North Sea this week to see how it fares during storms.

The Ocean Cleanup Foundation's 21-year-old Chief Executive Boyan Slat, who first had the idea for the system as a teenager, hopes to use the technology in an enormous area where trash circulates in the northern Pacific Ocean, from 2020.