The massive plastic-cleaning device invented by a 25-year-old may finally be catching trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Take a look at its difficult journey.
The road to success hasn't been smooth for 25-year-old Boyan Slat, the founder of The Ocean Cleanup, which aims to rid the oceans of harmful plastic.
Slat, a Dutch innovator, came up with his concept for removing garbage from the ocean at age 16, and he's been refining the idea ever since.
His system is designed to collect plastic debris using the ocean's currents, though the technology remains largely unproven and has hit several snags. This month, however, the organization deployed an improved cleanup device that may have fixed some of its initial issues.
If all goes according to plan, the device could eventually remove half the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch â a trash-filled vortex in the Pacific Ocean that is more than twice as large as Texas â within five years.
Take a look at a timeline of Slat's journey.
