0:00:10.316,0:00:14.474
Once there was a Stone Age, [br]a Bronze Age

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and now we are in the middle [br]of the Plastic Age.

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Because every year we produce [br]about 300,000,000 tons of plastic

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and fraction of that enters rivers, [br]water ways and eventually the oceans.

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If you want to eat a biscuit nowadays

0:00:33.216,0:00:36.425
we have to buy a biscuit [br]within a plastic wrapper,

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within a plastic tray, [br]within a cardboard box,

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within a plastic foil, [br]within a plastic bag.

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It's not hazardous nuclear waste -- [br]it's a biscuit.

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And this is me. I love diving

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just taking you through [br]my holiday slides here.

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This is at the pristine Azores Islands [br]and this is how their beaches look.

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Covered with plastic fragments.

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Due to sun and waves over the years

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the garbage breaks down [br]into ever smaller pieces, but remains plastic.

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And, well interestingly, you don't see [br]a lot of red particles in here

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because those look like food

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to birds more than any other color.

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So this is the result.

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And well, the debris primarily collects [br]at these 5 rotating currents

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called the gyres, where it doesn't only [br]directly kills sea life,

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but due to the absorption of PCBs and DDTs, [br]also poisons the food chain.

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A food chain that includes us -- humans.

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And while diving in Greece

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I came across more plastic bags than fish

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and astounded by the depressing sights

0:02:14.876,0:02:19.334
my Scottish dive buddy turned to me and said,

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"A lot of jellyfish is here, dear. [br]Seen about a thousand."

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There were no jellyfish.

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I won't talk about[br]environmental issues in general.

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I think the common response is,[br]well that's a long way off.

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That's for our children to worry about.

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So hello, here I am.

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Why don't we just clean it up?

0:02:44.306,0:02:45.953
There are a multiple reasons why

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current plastic pollution researchers [br]believe we should focus on prevention,

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for example through education, [br]rather than attempting a cleanup operation.

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Because we would need to deal [br]with 5 colossal areas -- each moving around.

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Plastic sizes ranging from these massive ghost nets [br]to molecules -- bycatches and emissions.

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Furthermore we would need to get [br]all the plastic back to land.

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It would need to be financially realistic and

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in fact the total amount of plastic [br]within the gyres [is] unknown.

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But about a year ago, when I was [br]on my way to the hairdresser's

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and I must admit I don't go there often [br]but I had this little epiphany.

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I saw even old people throwing [br]rubbish in the water

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and I thought, well some people [br]will just never learn, will they?

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We'll need the combination of both roads

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and we'll need them soon.

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So then I simply used this list of concerns

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as challenges, and in fact a week later [br]as a school assignment,

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I had a chance to spend a lot of time

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on a subject of choice together [br]with a friend of mine.

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And this gave me the perfect opportunity

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to do new and fundamental research [br]regarding plastic pollution.

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I then went on a holiday to Greece [br]taking this manta trawl with me,

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which is the common device [br]for sampling plastic,

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and so I had to leave home all my clothes

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due to low cost airlines weight limit policies.

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Well, the trawl we built, however,[br]is 15 times finer

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than the regular one. [br]And what we discovered was

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that the count of those minute particles [br]is in fact 40 times higher

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than the larger particles.[br]So we have to take these small plastics out,

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but then we wouldn't want to take [br]the important plankton out as well.

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Luckily these could simply be separated [br]using centrifugal forces.

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However, nobody knew how much G forces[br]common zoo-plankton could survive.

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So we took the trawl out again,[br]and we didn't have a boat,

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so and we tested it, and in fact they can survive [br]over 50 Gs, which is more than enough

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for successful separation.

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And then in order to know up to which depth [br]the ocean surface should be cleaned,

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we designed and built something [br]that I call the multilevel trawl.

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We basically stuck ten trawls [br]on top of each other.

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Here you can see us testing that [br]on the North Sea,

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I thought it was a great day -- [br]I was the only one who didn't get sick

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but then the so perfectly working trawl [br]broke and

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of course we didn't quit there,[br]because I believe you can't clean up something

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you don't know the size of.

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I've heard the estimations ranging [br]from several hundred thousand tons

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all the way to a hundred million tons.

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I knew we really need a better estimate [br]-- some scientific data.

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So then I simply contacted [br]some professors from the universities

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Delft, Utrecht and Hawaii -- [br]who then actually helped us in determining

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how much plastic there is [br]in the top layers of the gyres.

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The result -- a whopping 7.25 million tons [br]of extractable plastic in 2020.

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That's the weight of 1,000 Eiffel towers [br]floating in the gyres.

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Now, researcher and effect discoverer [br]of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Charles Moore

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estimates it would take [br]79,000 years to remediate that.

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However, I believe the Great Pacific [br]Garbage Patch

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can completely clean itself in just 5 years.

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And that is a difference of 78,995 years.

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Well, of course, this is the conventional idea [br]of extracting litter,

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so you have a vessel and a net [br]fishing for plastic.

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Of course multiple vessels could be used [br]to cover a larger area,

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but by spanning booms between [br]those vessels,

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suddenly a much larger area [br]would be covered,

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because the essence is not to [br]catch the debris, but divert it.[br]

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Because there is no mesh size,[br]we can even get out the smallest particles,

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and since all organisms can simply move [br]under the booms,

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we'll be able to eliminate [br]bycatches by 99.98%.

0:07:55.185,0:08:00.042
But, if we want to do something different

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shouldn't we also have to think differently.

0:08:03.871,0:08:11.142
For example then: the absorption of PCBs [br]by plastic is not such a bad thing,

0:08:11.773,0:08:14.303
it's a good thing.

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Get all the plastic out and simultaneously [br]remove tons and tons

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of persistent organic pollutants [br]from the marine environment.

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But how would we minimize environmental, [br]financial and transportation cost then?

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Let's use our enemy [br]to our advantage, OK?

0:08:34.948,0:08:41.187
The oceanic currents moving around [br]is not an obstacle -- it's a solution.

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Why move through the oceans [br]if the oceans can move through you?

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By fixing the "ships" to the seabed [br]and letting the rotating currents

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do their work -- vast amounts of funds, [br]manpower and emissions will be saved.

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The platforms will, of course, be [br]completely self-supportive

0:09:05.332,0:09:09.024
receiving their energy from sun, [br]currents and waves.

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And inspired by my diving at the Azores,[br]It now actually seems

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that the best shape for these platforms [br]is that of a Manta Ray,

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by letting its wings sway [br]like a real manta,

0:09:22.861,0:09:26.529
we can assure contact of the inlet[br]with the surface

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even in the roughest weather.

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Well, imagine a zigzag array of just 24 [br]of these platforms cleaning an entire ocean.

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Let's make a comparison, OK?

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These are the beaches of Hong Kong,[br]earlier this year.

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The largest plastic spill in history.[br]And this is their source,

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just 6 containers.

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How much could we get out?

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Over 55 of these containers per day.

0:10:05.173,0:10:16.083
Not only is plastic directly responsible [br]for over a billion USD in vessel damages a year,

0:10:16.083,0:10:19.545
no, the awesome surprise for me was that

0:10:19.607,0:10:28.307
if we sell the plastics retrieved from the 5 gyres [br]we'd make over $500,000,000

0:10:28.307,0:10:33.104
and this is in fact more than [br]the plan would cost to execute.

0:10:33.104,0:10:36.820
In other words -- it's profitable.

0:10:36.820,0:10:41.792
But I believe that the key thing is that

0:10:41.792,0:10:48.490
only if we realize change is more important [br]than money, money will come.

0:10:48.490,0:10:58.444
And yes, it will be one of the largest environmental[br]rescue operations yet, but we created this mess.

0:10:58.444,0:11:05.647
Heck, we even invented this new material first [br]before we made this mess,

0:11:05.647,0:11:12.407
so please don't tell me [br]we can't clean this up together.

0:11:12.407,0:11:14.752
Thank you very much.

0:11:14.860,0:11:17.598
(Applause)