"The Ocean Cleanup" launches massive project off the coast of San Francisco

The San Francisco Bay Area is preparing to launch a large-scale project to rid our oceans of plastic pollution. The system, led by The Ocean Cleanup, hopes to collect 5.5 tons of plastic waste each month, The Guardian reports.

Scientists and engineers will release 2,000 feet of floating dams that, propelled by wind and waves, drive plastic into the center of their U-shaped shape. A 9-foot skirt under the dams prevents plastics Escape beneath the surface, while allowing wildlife to move underneath. Finally, a support vessel will pick up debris collected every six weeks and ship it to a recycling center.

The project, known as System 001, will begin launch off the coast of San Francisco on Saturday.

The massive floating device was created by The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit organization founded by Boyan Slat at the age of 18. Slat, who is in the Netherlands, is hoping to face the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating mass of plastic pollutants twice as big as Texas. With about sixty devices like the Active 001 System, The Ocean Cleanup estimates that it can eliminate 50% of the Great Pacific's garbage in five years.

Slat was inspired to begin The Ocean Cleanup at the age of 16, diving off the Greek coast.

"I went scuba diving in Greece and saw more plastic bags than fish around me," said Slat, according to CNBC. "I was wondering why we could not clean everything up?"

Since the organization's launch in 2013, it has raised $ 35 million through generous donor and crowdfunding campaigns, reports CNBC. The funds allowed The Ocean Cleanup to test more than 270 models and six prototypes before creating the 001 System.

With full deployment in every ocean, slow whirlpools where plastics come together, combined with source reduction, The Ocean Cleanup estimates it can eliminate 90% of ocean plastics by 2040.

While environmentalists are pleased with the cleanup efforts, many are emphasizing the need to prevent plastic waste and worry about the effects that this device could have on marine wildlife. The Guardian reports.

"Exploring new ideas and technologies for cleaning up ocean pollution is commendable and [the project] could even be able to eliminate at least some of the waste, "said a spokesman for Greenpeace. The Guardian. "But prevention is better than cure and to cope with pollution, businesses must stop producing so much plastic."