Environmental group launches ocean plastic cleanup project out of Alameda

A nonprofit group is on the verge of launching a mission out of Alameda this summer to help clean up an area known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The Ocean Cleanup is a Dutch nonprofit that's built a device it hopes will be capable of screening out plastic debris and hauling that trash out of the Pacific Ocean.

The garbage patch is a growing problem and, according to the most recent estimates, is twice the size of Texas and contains about 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic.

The company's latest iteration of the project uses floating black tubes with attached nylon screens hanging below in the water. It should collect plastic as waves carry trash toward it, explained Ocean Cleanup CEO Boyan Slat.

"Instead of going after the plastic what we propose to do is let the plastic come to us," Slat told KTVU. "So we built these u-shaped floating barriers to act as a funnel."

A sample of the garbage found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is stored on the Ocean Starr during the 30-day Mega Expedition. Photographed on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif. A sample of the garbage found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is stored on the Ocean Starr during the 30-day Mega Expedition. Photographed on Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015 in San Francisco, Calif. Photo: Nathaniel Y. Downes, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Nathaniel Y. Downes, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Environmental group launches ocean plastic cleanup project out of Alameda 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

Boats will then sail out to the tubes and collect the trash caught in the net, bringing it back to land. Slat, 23, believes they could collect possibly 90 percent of the plastic using the company's methods. The lack of nets is expected to keep animals safe, he said to KTVU.

Slat has been working on his company since he was a teen and has received funding totaling $40 million, KGO reported. Among those donors are Marc and Lynne Benioff and Peter Thiel.

The company will initially test a 400-foot version of the system outside the Golden Gate and eventually expand it to 2,000 feet; the final length of the black tubes will measure about one mile long. The first open ocean test is estimated to launch in July.