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Huge barrier failing to trap plastic in Pacific Ocean

Project creator, engineers working on speeding device

The Columbian
Published: December 20, 2018, 6:41pm
3 Photos
File - In this Sept. 8, 2018 file photo, a ship tows The Ocean Cleanup’s first buoyant trash-collecting device toward the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco en route to the Pacific Ocean. The trash collection device deployed to corral plastic litter floating between California and Hawaii in an attempt to clean up the world’s largest garbage patch is not collecting any trash. But Boyan Slat, who launched the Pacific Ocean cleanup project, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday, Dec. 17, 2018, he is confident the 2,000-foot (600-meter) long floating boom will be fixed.
File - In this Sept. 8, 2018 file photo, a ship tows The Ocean Cleanup’s first buoyant trash-collecting device toward the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco en route to the Pacific Ocean. The trash collection device deployed to corral plastic litter floating between California and Hawaii in an attempt to clean up the world’s largest garbage patch is not collecting any trash. But Boyan Slat, who launched the Pacific Ocean cleanup project, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday, Dec. 17, 2018, he is confident the 2,000-foot (600-meter) long floating boom will be fixed. (AP Photo/Lorin Eleni Gill, File) Photo Gallery

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A floating device sent to corral a swirling island of trash between California and Hawaii has not swept up any plastic waste — but the young innovator behind the project said Monday that a fix was in the works.

Boyan Slat, 24, who launched the Pacific Ocean cleanup project, said the speed of the solar-powered barrier isn’t allowing it to hold on to the plastic it catches.

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