Boyan Slat is an inventor and entrepreneur who creates technologies to solve societal problems. He is the founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, the foundation that develops advanced systems to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. In February 2013, he dropped out of his aerospace engineering study to work full-time on this ambitious project. He dedicates most of his time to managing the rapid growth of the organization, while also overseeing the team’s technology developments.
The Ocean Cleanup develops advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. They aim to achieve this goal by taking a two-pronged approach: stemming the inflow via rivers and cleaning up what has already accumulated in the ocean. For the latter, The Ocean Cleanup is developing large-scale systems to efficiently concentrate the plastic for periodic removal. This plastic will then be used to create durable products and fund continued cleanup, making cleanup itself circular. In 2019, the organization launched the other half of its solution, the Interceptor, to extract plastic in rivers before reaching the ocean. In 2020, The Ocean Cleanup produced the first product made with plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, of which 100% of the proceeds go toward the continuation of the cleanup.