16:35, 28 November 2025
Words by Cheyanne Bryan, Editorial and Campaign Marketing Executive, London
It may seem odd to design an organisation to put itself out of business, but that’s exactly what Boyan Slat did with The Ocean Cleanup.
At 31, Boyan is now internationally recognised as an inventor and entrepreneur, but his philanthropic journey began at the tender age of 16.
While on holiday in Greece, Boyan went SCUBA diving and realised he saw more plastic bags than fish in the sea and, in the way of teenagers - wondered why such a simple problem wasn’t being addressed.
Upon returning to his home in the Netherlands, Boyan made ocean plastic pollution the subject of a school project. It was here that he came up with the idea of a passive system that would collect ocean plastic, relying on the natural behaviour of the water, as well as global weather patterns to divert plastic into catchment areas.
It is this concept, simple on the surface, that lead to the creation of The Ocean Cleanup; and has so far resulted in 42,393,632 kg of rubbish removed from the ocean, as of this writing.
Boyan set up The Ocean Cleanup as a not-for-profit organisation, designed to rid our oceans of 90% of floating plastic by 2040 - and make its very existence unnecessary in the process.
Despite a brief sojourn into an Aerospace Engineering degree, from that moment on, Boyan’s life became dedicated to fixing the problem of ocean plastic pollution through technology. With only €300 of saved up pocketmoney, Boyan initially struggled to progress - but after a demonstration of his ideas at a TEDx Conference went viral, he was able to connect with people all around the world who shared his vision for a healthier, safer planet.
Thanks to 38,000 donors from 160 countries, Boyan raised US $2.2 million, all of which went towards the furthering of technology aimed at removing plastic from the world’s oceans. Unlike many inventors of technology, Boyan is not inventing for inventions sake - but instead seeing a real, tangible problem, and wondering, how can humanity fix what we have done?
It is Boyan’s vision and dedication that has allowed The Ocean Cleanup to make such a huge difference to our society - but, like the best of philanthropic endeavours, it is the involvement and passion of thousands of people globally which has enabled its reach.
Despite the passions of others pushing him forward, when Boyan first launched The Ocean Cleanup, there was some pushback - even those who hoped for change wondered, was this not an impossible task?
Boyan’s response was: “When people say something is impossible, the sheer absoluteness of that statement should be a motivation to investigate further.”
Today, The Ocean Cleanup takes on a two pronged approach - intercepting plastic in rivers, to prevent them from making it to the ocean, and cleaning up what has already accumulated.
“This century, humanity’s biggest challenge is probably transitioning from something that was built in the last century into something that can still exist in the next one,” Boyan said in an interview with DigitalTrends.
It may feel simple to blame our ocean’s plastic problem on technology, and the progression of humanity - how many discarded, plastic phone cases are floating in the ocean? But Boyan doesn’t see it that way - in his eyes, technology is as much the solution as it is the problem.
In the 12 years since setting up The Ocean Cleanup, Boyan’s ideas have gone from strength to strength, each year implementing new ways to harness technology for good. In Japan, The Ocean Cleanup has embraced artificial intelligence as a way to improve and scale up its plastic solutions.
The Automatic Debris Imaging System (ADIS), is working to identify plastic debris, classifying and logging it for easier cleanup. This, working in tandem with predictive AI, is able to forecast where plastics are beginning to gather due to winds, currents and other factors of nature - allowing The Ocean Cleanup to intervene and clean up the plastic.
What sets Boyan aside from many other philanthropists is that his passion has not wavered. Despite acting as founder and CEO, brokering partnerships and working on the daily politics of running a global not-for-profit, he also remains ingrained in the science.
Since launching The Ocean Cleanup, Boyan has co-authored a dozen scientific papers, and multiple patents, constantly searching for ways to push forward his organisation’s work, and improve their already amazing work.
Today, The Ocean Cleanup is actively working on dismantling the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as well as intercepting pollutants from some of the world’s most damaging rivers.
What started off as a simple concept, thanks to the tenacity, passion, and perseverance of Boyan Slat, has turned into a global not-for-profit which is truly changing the world. Boyan, and The Ocean Cleanup, act as proof that passion is the greatest driver of positive change - and that, no matter how small your ideas may feel in the face of something insurmountable, even the simplest of ideas can make a difference.
