Our team visited Venice Beach, Los Angeles, engaging with strangers to gather their insights on a specific topic.

The diverse range of opinions we encountered proved to be remarkably surprising, offering truly unexpected perspectives.

The ocean, Earth's largest ecosystem, is home to incredible biodiversity but also vast amounts of plastic pollution. This plastic accumulates in ocean gyres, most notably the North Pacific Gyre, which hosts the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). Estimated to be twice the size of Texas and weighing 100,000 tons, the GPGP remains a mystery to many.

To assess public knowledge about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, we interviewed strangers at Venice Beach, Los Angeles. Their surprising responses are featured in our video, revealing how much people truly know.

Stay updated by subscribing to our YouTube channel. Learn more and support us at The Ocean Cleanup. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X.

Footage recently captured from the Rio Las Vacas in Guatemala has drawn attention. This visual record, taken just last week, highlights the current state of this significant waterway.

The imagery provides a timely glimpse into the environmental conditions affecting the region. Such documentation is crucial for understanding the challenges and potential solutions for the Rio Las Vacas.

Beyond removing trash from rivers and oceans worldwide, we also conduct vital research. Plastic recovered from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, for instance, exhibits numerous bite marks.

We are currently analyzing this debris to understand how different species interact with various types, colors, and shapes of plastic. This research will clarify the environmental impacts of ocean plastic pollution, its effects on marine inhabitants, and how animals contribute to fragmentation.

Stay tuned for our results!

We recently announced agreements with Los Angeles county and city leaders to expand our operations to the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers.

Following the success of Interceptor 007 in Ballona Creek, this new project is expected to prevent 410–628 tons of plastic from entering the Pacific Ocean annually. Deployments are planned ahead of the LA28 Olympic Games.

Stay tuned for more progress.

Rivers are primary conduits, carrying plastic waste from land to the sea, where it inevitably impacts marine life. Our research highlights this issue, revealing that 76% of loggerhead turtles in the Indian Ocean have ingested plastic, largely transported via rivers.

To combat this, our 30 Cities Program aims to significantly reduce plastic inflow into the ocean from key urban areas. By 2030, we plan to stop up to one-third of this plastic pollution.

Our mission is to permanently remove waste from the environment, ensuring it never re-enters.

In Honduras, our partner Terrapolyester transforms plastic collected by our Interceptor 021 in El Quetzalito. This recovered material is repurposed into durable household items such as brooms, brushes, and pillows.

Thousands of eel traps, a type of ghost gear, were discovered floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). These funnel-shaped devices continue to "ghost fish," causing entanglement, ingestion, and habitat damage, severely impacting marine life, including endangered species. Discarded fishing gear constitutes the largest component of the GPGP.

Recent research, analyzing over 21,000 pieces of derelict gear, identified large offshore fleets as primary sources, with smaller coastal fisheries contributing less. The study highlighted the extreme durability of this gear, which can persist for years and travel vast ocean distances, underscoring the urgent need for cleanup efforts.

While Interceptors can stop a vast majority of plastic flowing into oceans from rivers, another significant source we must address is lost fishing gear. The scale of this problem is immense; for instance, lost longline nets alone could stretch 750,000 km, equivalent to a round trip to the moon.

To tackle this, we are conducting extensive research to understand its origins. We have also joined the Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) to actively shape policies and initiatives aimed at solving this critical environmental issue.

Indonesia hosts our first river Interceptor, Interceptor 001, in Jakarta’s Cengkareng Drain, alongside Interceptor 020 in the nearby Cisadane River.

Lessons learned from these deployments are now shaping future in-country and global efforts.

Indonesia is a key focus of our 30 Cities Program, with planned deployments in Jakarta, Denpasar (Bali), and Tasikmalaya (West Java). The country already hosts our first river Interceptor, 001, in Jakarta’s Cengkareng Drain, and Interceptor 020 in the Cisadane River. Since deploying Interceptor 001 in 2019, we've partnered with local authorities and communities, adapting solutions to scale operations. Interceptor 020 exemplifies this adaptive approach, providing crucial insights for future efforts in Indonesia and worldwide.

Stay updated by subscribing to our YouTube channel. Learn more and support us at The Ocean Cleanup. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X.

Interceptor deployments are planned for the Philippines as part of our 30 Cities Program.

The first Interceptor will be deployed in the Meycauayan River in the coming months. This aims to prevent trash from the Manila Bay Region from flowing into the ocean.

This year, your monthly donation has approximately 2.5x the impact. Thanks to more Interceptors and efficient operations, we now collect significantly more trash for every dollar.

As our impact grows, so does yours. Take action today: https://visit.theoceancleanup.com/4twyITw. Note: No AI was used in the video; bottles are 3D animated for illustration.

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Inspired by a picture book, Max Romey journeyed to a remote Alaskan beach for marine debris, discovering a more complex story. Five years prior, an ocean plastics cleanup on Kayak Island left him overwhelmed. While the issue remains intricate, sharing the "big picture" now helps him envision collaborative solutions.

Learn more through Max's videos: No Lost Shoe, Give A Beach A Bottle, and Trailbound Alaska.