Maersk and The Ocean Cleanup Forge Ahead in Plastic Capture

Offshore vessel owner Maersk Supply Service, A.P. Moller – Maersk,  and The Ocean Cleanup have agreed to extend their collaboration to complete the validation of the system by The Ocean Cleanup which is said to be able to consistently capture significant quantities of plastic from the ocean. 

The Ocean Cleanup, which has established the plastic capture system said the next step for The Ocean Cleanup is to validate the system from an engineering and ecological perspective, allowing it to demonstrate to governments, institutions and other funders that there is a viable technology available to clean the oceans from plastic.

Maersk Supply Service and A.P. Moller – Maersk will provide support to the program, which includes project management, the operation of two Maersk Supply Service vessels towing the system as well as logistics services for waste collection and transportation for recycling. At the same time, the A.P. Moller Foundation will provide a one-time grant to The Ocean Cleanup.

The system validation is expected to be finalized by the end of 2024 and will include an environmental review of the impact of plastic pollution versus the greenhouse gas emissions of the vessels involved. When the technology and system have been validated, The Ocean Cleanup said it believeed it would be able to raise support from the public, governments, and other foundations to significantly scale up the operation from 2025 onwards.

Boyan Slat, founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup: “Maersk Supply Service and A.P. Moller – Maersk have been instrumental on the journey from initial concept to a working system in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and I am tremendously grateful for their commitment to get us towards the point we are ready for scale-up, with the additional donation from the A.P. Moller Foundation being a welcome contribution to our 2024 mission.”

Robert M. Uggla, CEO of A.P. Moller Holding and Chair of A.P. Moller – Maersk: “The Ocean Cleanup holds an important mission to remove plastics from the oceans, one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time. Today, plastic pollution impacts hundreds of marine species, and it contaminates the marine food chain with toxic pollutants. With this in mind, Maersk Supply Service, A.P. Moller – Maersk and the A.P. Moller Foundation have decided to extend support to The Ocean Cleanup to finalise and validate their technology and system.”

The agreement between Maersk Supply Service, A.P. Moller – Maersk and The Ocean Cleanup will run until the end of 2024.