If it works as expected, they'll try to take a bite out of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- a huge collection of floating trash that's three times the size of France, or about double the size of Texas. A boat tows the Ocean Cleanup System 001 from San Francisco on Saturday. "It also is increasing, so we've seen exponential increase in the amount of plastic, which means it's just going to be getting worse and worse and worse unless we clean it up," he saidJUST WATCHED Cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch 03:49Slat also stressed the importance of preventing new plastic from getting in the water. She studied the Great Pacific Garbage Patch for her Ph.D. in biological oceanography and has been there several times. The Ocean Cleanup team thinks the fleet could extract 50% of the plastic in the garbage patch every five years.

Source: CNN September 10, 2018 22:07 UTC