The Ocean Vacuum
There’s a glut of plastic trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that’s bigger than Texas—and growing. But the default removal process of chasing it with nets is both costly and time-**consuming. Instead, the Ocean Cleanup Project proposes a 62-mile-long (100 km) floating boom — at an estimated cost of $15 million — that would use natural currents to trap trash. (Its net drops roughly 10 ft., or 3 m, below the surface, shallow enough for fish to swim around.) If next year’s trials succeed, a full clean-up operation would aim to start in 2020; internal estimates suggest it could reduce the trash by 42% over 10 years.