Maersk Supply Service is set to provide marine support to The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch nonprofit that is developing advanced technologies to rid the oceans from plastic. This marks the start of the world’s first large-scale initiative for collection of floating ocean plastic debris.
Global plastic production has risen steadily since the 1950s with, as an unintended result, an estimated more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic waste now littering all major ocean basins. The Ocean Cleanup is addressing the problem of plastic pollution, having developed a solution in the form of long floating screens to collect plastic debris for recycling.
This fall, the first offshore cleaning system, in a partnership between The Ocean Cleanup and Maersk Supply Services, will be installed in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), located 1,200 nautical miles off the coast of San Francisco. The system will be deployed by Maersk Supply Service’s AHTS vessel Maersk Launcher.
“We are truly proud to be supporting the installation of The Ocean Cleanup’s first system. Large towing operations have been a part of Maersk Supply Service’s work scope for decades. It is rewarding to see that our marine capabilities can be utilized within new segments, and to support solving such an important environmental issue,” said Steen S. Karstensen, chief executive officer of Maersk Supply Service.