BREAKING: more than 100,000kg of plastic removed from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). Thank you to our determined offshore crew and our supporters; together, we have now officially cleaned up 1/1000th of the GPGP. | The Ocean Cleanup

A recap of what happened over the last four weeks in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. | The Ocean Cleanup

We throw eight million tons of plastic into the oceans every year. A lot of it washes up on one tiny Pacific island - and the damage it does to fish and birds could soon be replicated in humans: cnn.com/plasticisland | CNN International

The Dutch-led effort to clean the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has moved far beyond its experimental beginnings. Early 600-meter systems proved that large-scale plastic capture was possible. Today, the operation is defined by System 03, a platform designed to work at an industrial scale that would have seemed unrealistic only a few years ago. Developed by The Ocean Cleanup, System 03 is a 2,200-meter U-shaped floating barrier. By the mid-2020s, the project reached a critical proof-of-scale phase,