The Ocean Cleanup

Yesterday marked an important step toward cleaner oceans in the Greater Los Angeles area.🌊 The Ocean Cleanup has signed agreements with the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works, City of Long Beach, and City of Seal Beach to help intercept plastic in the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers before it reaches the Pacific Ocean. This initiative aims to prevent an estimated 410–628 tons of plastic from entering the Pacific Ocean each year — helping protect marine ecosystems, biodiversity, and coastal communities. Building on the success of Interceptor 007, deployed in 2022, the expanded Interceptor deployments are expected to be completed ahead of the LA28 Olympic Games. Los Angeles is also part of The Ocean Cleanup’s 30 Cities Program to reduce one-third of global river-based plastic emissions. Learn more in the press release linked in the comments below.

LATELY IN THE NEWS Here's a selection of articles featuring The Ocean Cleanup's research and progress in the past month: 🔹Laurent Lebreton, Head of Research at The Ocean Cleanup, delves into how intercepting plastic in rivers plays a key role in the fight against climate change: https://lnkd.in/dUY6SWft. 🔹Monty Simus, Senior Advisor, Blue Finance at The Ocean Cleanup, sheds light on how plastic waste can contribute to infrastructure failure in fast-growing cities: https://lnkd.in/dkfpTWKT 🔹This is how we are using AI to map plastic in the world's rivers and oceans: https://lnkd.in/dUTUcaum 🔹Our work in Mumbai, India, has started with the first deployments coming up soon: https://lnkd.in/dGes-pUs

Our cleanup efforts go beyond removing waste from rivers and oceans. We are already seeing positive social and economic impacts from our operations, particularly for communities that are affected by plastic pollution and inadequate waste management. Watch the full video about our impact in Jakarta, Indonesia: https://lnkd.in/dwneUsY6

A lot of waste flows to the ocean through rivers... But there's another source of ocean pollution: fishing gear. Each year, commercial fishing gear is lost at sea due to operations, bad weather, handling accidents, and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. To tackle this inflow, we are researching the source of the problem and have recently joined the Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI), an alliance of organizations dedicated to solving abandoned, lost, and discarded fishing gear in the ocean. The insights from our research will contribute to the GGGI’s shaping of policies and initiatives at both a national and international scale. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/d8GqmrgR

This is the progress we made towards clean oceans in April: 🔹Our research team published its 100th peer-reviewed research paper: https://lnkd.in/gK9ezKCA 🔹In Jamaica, Interceptor 015 captured tons of trash, including multiple fridges and even a couch 🔹Interceptor 023 in Honduras is stopping trash before it reaches the ocean - and performance improvements are underway 🔹 We’re bringing operations to the Philippines, with our first deployment in the Meycauayan River planned in the coming months: https://lnkd.in/d324JPzZ 🔹 We renewed our partnership with Hyundai Glovis for another four years, which will help us expand our ADIS camera deployments to better map plastic pollution hotspots in the ocean: https://lnkd.in/dum-tzNN

Indonesia is home to our first river Interceptor, Interceptor 001 in Jakarta’s Cengkareng Drain, as well as Interceptor 020 in the nearby Cisadane River. The lessons we learned from these deployments are shaping future in-country and global efforts. Watch our unfiltered journey tackling plastic pollution in Jakarta: https://lnkd.in/dvYZ6k5c

Last week, we were featured in Matt Ferrell's Undecided YouTube series. If you're curious about an external deep dive into our mission and operations, you can check out the video here: https://lnkd.in/esCA7Vf5

Interceptor deployments are scheduled for the Philippines. 🇵🇭 As part of our 30 Cities Program, we are expanding our river operations to Manila Bay. Our goal is to stop the projected 3,500 to 4,400 tonnes of plastic waste that annually enters the ocean from the region. Together with the local government and partners, we will deploy our first Interceptor in the Meycauayan River in the coming months. Read more about our upcoming work in the Philippines: https://lnkd.in/d324JPzZ

Based on the amount of trash we collected last year, we calculated the impact of every dollar you contribute to our mission. With more Interceptors in the water and more efficient operations, our total catch more than doubled in 2025. This means that this year, your monthly donation has ~2.5× the expected impact. Take action today and help us remove even more waste from the environment: https://lnkd.in/d3yhzXYD Note: no AI was used in this video. The bottles you see are 3D animated for illustrative purposes.

"At The Ocean Cleanup, we are on a mission to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. We made this our mission because we believe that the health of our oceans is essential for all life on Earth to prosper." - Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup. While plastic pollution is a direct threat to marine species, it also harms human well-being and impedes the ocean’s ability to help regulate the climate. For over a decade, we have been researching, extracting, and monitoring plastic pollution in oceans, coastal areas, and rivers worldwide – with over 50 million kilograms of trash removed to date. Learn more about our project and impact: https://lnkd.in/dDb_HPxe #EarthDay