Breakthrough in Garbage Collection Technology

KOMPAS/ESTER LINCE NAPITUPULU

Boyan Slat

The Ocean Cleanup founder and CEO, Boyan Slat, 25, was obsessed with collecting ocean-polluting plastic trash when he was in high school. He felt disturbed after a vacation in Greece. While diving, he found more plastic waste than beautiful fish. Driven by that experience, the Dutchman created a technology to clean up plastic waste in the sea and rivers.

Boyan now has a team of around 80 people: technicians, researchers, scientists and computation designers. His breakthrough started from reckless decisions. In 2013, he dropped out of the Department of Aviation Engineering and Aerospace of Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, only six months after enrolling. He founded the nonprofit organization, The Ocean Cleanup, based in Rotterdam.

Boyan offered a solution, cleaning up marine trash with a floating barrier that stretched like an artificial coastline. These lines allow wind, waves and currents to capture and concentrate the plastic passively. The technology got worldwide recognition.

AP PHOTO/PETER DEJONG, FILE)

In this May 11, 2017, file photo, Dutch innovator Boyan Slat poses for a portrait next to the anchors of his plastic collecting system, suspended from the roof of a building in Utrecht, Netherlands. Engineers will deploy a trash collection device to corral plastic litter floating between California and Hawaii in an attempt to clean up the world\'s largest garbage patch in the heart of the Pacific Ocean. The 2,000-foot (600-meter) long floating boom will be towed Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018, from San Francisco to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an island of trash twice the size of Texas. The system was created by The Ocean Cleanup, an organization founded by Slat.

Boyan received the 2014 United Nations Champion of the Earth Award when he was just 20 years old, making him the youngest environmental activist to have received this international award.

Boyan decided to test technology for the cleanup of marine plastic waste on the so-called Great Pacific garbage patch, which is the largest accumulation zone of marine plastic waste in the world. This zone covers 3.5 million square kilometers from Hawaii to California. In this area it is estimated that there are 1.8 million trillion pieces of plastic waste.

The serious research that Boyan started in 2014 came to fruition, even with ideas that kept developing. Within five years, he offered a solution to clean up trash in the world, not only focusing on the sea, but instead began to block the rubbish in rivers so that it did not reach the sea.

He gave birth to the System 001 waste-collecting technology. There is also a technology for collecting rubbish in rivers called the Interceptor, a floating device similar to a boat that uses the river stream to capture and sort plastic waste.

For Indonesia

At the end of October, Boyan was in Jakarta to share the story of the application of waste-cleaning technology in the river initiated by The Ocean Cleanup. Jakarta was chosen as the first place in the world for the application of the Interceptor 001. A trial in Cengkareng Drain, Pantai Indah Kapuk, North Jakarta, is a collaboration of The Ocean Cleanup and Danone-Aqua, supported by the Jakarta provincial administration, the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry and the Government of the Netherlands.

When he launched the Interceptor 004 in Rotterdam on Oct. 26, 2019, Boyan said this technology had been applied in two rivers, first in Jakarta and second in Malaysia, followed by Vietnam and Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic). Then, requests also came from Thailand and the United States.

According to Boyan, the application of the first Interceptor in Jakarta gave him the opportunity to continue to learn to understand the environment and work partners. "This provides a positive experience, so that we can see the possibility of cooperation with Indonesia to implement new technologies to clean up rubbish in rivers," Boyan said in an interview in Jakarta on Friday (1/11/2019).

He is convinced that the Interceptor technology is capable of collecting 50 tons of garbage from the surface of rivers. If optimized, it could be 100 tons per day. I can work 24 hours a day without an operator and uses solar energy.

Boyan, who appeared relaxed in a polo shirt and jeans, was eager to share the importance of applying technology to tackle plastic waste that had become a global problem. He is convinced that the Interceptor technology is capable of collecting 50 tons of garbage from the surface of rivers. If optimized, it could be 100 tons per day. I can work 24 hours a day without an operator and uses solar energy.

"I really like technology and am very passionate about being able to create technology that benefits people. This is my hobby," he said.

Boyan decided to try out his ideas. "When I got going and did a presentation on the internet, there was a lot of crowdfunding, so I finally built a team to test and [create a] prototype so that it could be produced," Boyan said.

Boyan explained that just 1 percent of the 100,000 rivers in the world contributed 80 percent of the plastic waste in the ocean. Therefore, Boyan’s idea is to place the Interceptor in the 1,000 most polluted rivers of the world, including those in Indonesia, before the end of 2025.

"Cleaning up trash at sea must be done in two ways at the same time. Trash that has entered the sea must be collected, but it is also important to stop the supply of plastic waste from the rivers, so that it does not flow into the sea," he said.

Boyan said The Ocean Cleanup continued to push all parties to work together to overcome plastic waste in the sea. "We provide the technology; the government of each country must commit to cleaning up the trash; the company also contributes," he said.

(AP PHOTO/PETER DEJONG, FILE)

In this May 11, 2017, file photo, Dutch innovator Boyan Slat poses for a portrait next to a pile of plastic garbage prior to a press conference in Utrecht, Netherlands. Engineers will deploy a trash collection device to corral plastic litter floating between California and Hawaii in an attempt to clean up the world\'s largest garbage patch in the heart of the Pacific Ocean. The 2,000-foot (600-meter) long floating boom will be towed Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018, from San Francisco to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an island of trash twice the size of Texas. The system was created by The Ocean Cleanup, an organization founded by Slat.

Boyan Slat

Born: Netherlands, July 27, 1994

Education: Dropout in early semester of Aviation Engineering and Aerospace, Delft Technology of University, the Netherlands

Awards:

-United Nations Champion of the Earth Award 2014

-The Maritime Industry’s Young Entrepreneur Award from King Harald, Norway (2015)

-Listed in the 30 Under 30 Forbes 2016