Over 5 trillion pieces of plastic currently litter the ocean.

What happens to plastic in the ocean?

Ocean currents cause garbage to accumulate into patches across the world. The largest patch being the one that sits between Hawaii and California, called 'The Great Pacific Garbage Patch'.

Solving plastic pollution requires a combination of stopping plastic waste at its source and cleaning up all of the plastic that currently exists in our environment.

How do we clean up existing plastic?

The Ocean Cleanup has invented a device that is dragged through the ocean and captures plastic pollution. The plastic is recycled into products like sunglasses, which are sold with proceeds going right back into funding more ocean cleanups.

This July they are launching their latest cleanup model 'System 002' or 'Jenny' which incorporates active propulsion into the design. This means they can steer toward high-density zones to accelerate the process, boost efficiency, reduce cost per kilogram of plastic removed, and reduce time needed to scale up operations.

In two weeks they will take Jenny out to be tested on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. If successful, they will be able to clean 1 football field of ocean EVERY 15 SECONDS. Can we get a *woot woot*?!

The Ocean Cleanup aims to remove 90% of floating ocean plastic by 2040 with its various projects. You can check the others out here.

How Go For Zero fights ocean pollution...

When you shop with go for zero we donate $1 from every single online order to a purpose project of your choice. You can choose to clean the sea, plant a tree or feed an Aussie in need. If you choose to clean the sea $1 removes 1.2kg of rubbish from the ocean with The Seabin Project. You can read more about our donations here.

Projects like this give us so much hope for the future! Share this blog with your ocean-loving bestie.