LOS ANGELES — A trash collection device deployed to corral plastic litter floating in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii has broken apart and will be hauled back to dry land for repairs. Boyan Slat, who launched the Pacific Ocean cleanup project, told NBC News last week that the 2,000-foot (600-meter) long floating boom will be towed 800 miles (1,300 kilometres) to Hawaii. The boom broke apart under constant wind and waves in the Pacific. A ship towed the U-shaped barrier in September from San Francisco to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — an island of trash twice the size of Texas. Slat has said he hopes one day to deploy 60 of the devices to skim plastic debris off the surface of the ocean.

Source: National Post January 06, 2019 17:54 UTC