How the oceans can clean themselves: Boyan Slat at TEDxDelft

18-year-old Boyan Slat combines environmentalism, entrepreneurism and technology to tackle global issues of sustainability. After diving in Greece, and coming across more plastic bags than fish, he wondered; "why can't we clean this up?"

While still being on secondary school, he then decided to dedicate half a year of research to understand plastic pollution and the problems associated with cleaning it up.
This ultimately led to his passive clean-up concept, which he presented at TEDxDelft 2012.
Working to prove the feasibility of his concept, Boyan Slat currently gives lead to a team of approximately 50 people, and temporarily quit his Aerospace Engineering study to completely focus his efforts on The Ocean Cleanup.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[SeoulCalStudios]

Who’s here years later seeing his project actually be a success?

[anjeru_]

"Only if we realize change is more important than money, money will come." Splendid!

[DuongNguyen-lhru]

Good luck man. I'm 19 as you and I spend all day checking facebook and youtube. You are the pride of my generation

[OneUltimateWarrior]

Proof that it takes one person to make a positive difference in the world!

[jaycesilva]

I feel like there is a severe lack of applause during this....

[yoyoneel]

This guy is a hero, cleaning up the entire ocean is not something simple ;) 

[cbbones]

This young man is absolutely brilliant. I hope they use his idea. I wish people in government cared about the Earth as much as this young man does.

[mare]

And 10 years later, he did 1st it was with "Wilson", then with "Jenny". Bravo!!!!

[abetterway]

This video is going to save the planet. He may be young, but he thinks directly, and over the heads of people that can't do anything. This young man has the most important comments of our age. If we don't listen, there won't be time to do anything about this. He is a plastics hero.

[elenka]

Some 4 years ago, I have watched this video. And today, I have just read, that the government actually did it and in a year - there will be 60 devices in Pacific. So happy about it!!

[toucheguy]

In our time, when mediocrity prevails, the voice and effort of such a young man must be heard, We need people like him just anytime. Boyan Slat fights to make the world a better place for everybody. His ideas are simple and bright and we can not pretend he is not a genius.  He deserves our respect, support and applause.

[fenrisgrins]

Thank you Boyan. I am old enough to be your Grandma. I am impressed by your concern for this planet, by your persistence and most especially by your positive energy. Bless you for caring and not giving up and don;t let anyone grind you down!

[insideout]

He is a man with a courage to follow his heart so selflessly. I hope that this invention happens. Its clear that if the governments wanted to help any of the world crisis that we face they could easily do so but choose not too. Thank goodness for people like him. Thank you Boyan. x

[Fallahh]

There’s something magical about a young man with a vision and plan to help change the world and accomplishing that goal makes it all the more special. Humanity at its finest. Thank you sir.

[KathleenPickering]

Thank you Boyan Slat!!! You are brave and brilliant. A true leader. Go, baby, Go!!

[octopuie]

I admire his method. Can't help but feel how sincere his passion is.

[brothersinstupidity]

This was done 8 years ago and the world leaders still don't bother. I think this is an amazing plan that should be put into action.

[iamcnp]

"only if we realize that change is more important than money, money will come" this is true in every business, money chases value and not the other way around.

[rorycartlidge]

As a student in Hong Kong I am writing this in full support of Boyan Slat and his idea...

“First we had the stone age, then the bronze age and now we are in the middle of the plastic age”, this is a quote from the ted talk by Boyan Slat. This means a lot and we should all take this into account. We use far to much plastic and it needs to stop before it gets out of control.

As we saw in the talk, we produce 300 million tons of plastic a year and this is a phenomenal amount especially if we consider that if we keep going at this rate we will have no life left in the oceans. This is why I am in full support of this talk. We need fish, we need animals that eat these fish, we need the animals who eat those fish because, at the top of the food chain we have us. Fish is one of the main parts of our diets but with all of this plastic in the oceans, there will be no fish left. This is why we need this idea and we need to execute it now. 

As we found out in the video, plastic is something that we use everyday, wether it be from a lunch bag, a plastic drinking bottle or even the wrapper of our favourite chocolate bar, plastic is everywhere! Everyone in society has dropped at least one piece of rubbish at some point in their lives, this could be old, middle aged people or us, the main problem - teenagers. 

We saw in the Ted Talk that plastic will always find a way into a stream, these streams then feed into a river, these into the rivers estuaries which open out to sea. 71 percent of the world is covered by water, the oceans take up a whopping 96.5 percent of this water and it is all polluted in some shape or form. And it’s easy to stop it at the source but as we have found out, nobody seems to care, they just say “oh it’s the next generations problem” and it really will be if we are stupid enough not to make a start now. 

The oceans have 5 main gyres that keep the water spinning all over the world. These gyres in fact are the main problem. Because all of the rubbish is in the sea it means that it has to pass through one of these gyres and as we have found in the talk this is a big problem. The rubbish forms into massive patches in the middle of the ocean and if a fish or any other sea creatures were to swim into one of the rubbish patches they would be poisoned and would probably die from it.

We need to embrace this solution and accept that we as human beings were the ones who started this so for the sake of the animals and us. If we don't fix this global problem right now it will never be fixed. If we don't start cleaning up the oceans they will become overpopulated with rubbish patches not algae. Next time you throw a plastic bottle in the stream just remember that small bit of rubbish in that stream from a plastic bottle can help contribute to a far bigger problem. This is a problem that can be fixed, by our generation and as we heard from Boyan Slat this is a profitable option to take so why not give it a try? 

[angoose]

This is the person we should be listening to instead of an angry swedish girl who offers no solutions