Sometimes a single moment can change everything. For Boyan Slat, that moment happened at age sixteen while scuba diving on a vacation in Greece. 

He looked around and saw more plastic bags than fish. It sparked a simple but powerful question in his mind: "Why can't we just clean this up?" 

That single thought grew into The Ocean Cleanup, a global nonprofit on a mission to rid our oceans of plastic.

What started as a school project on plastic pollution quickly became Slat's obsession. He learned about the massive garbage patches swirling in the ocean. After holding a TEDx talk about his ideas in 2012, he watched as the video went viral. 

The momentum was so great that at 18, he dropped out of his aerospace engineering studies to found The Ocean Cleanup in 2013.

The problem he set out to solve is staggering. Hundreds of thousands of tons of plastic pour into our oceans every year, with much of it coming from rivers. 

This isn't just an eyesore. This plastic pollution harms nearly 900 marine species and carries toxic pollutants right back into our food chain. 

One study found there are an estimated 170 trillion plastic pieces choking our oceans, a number that's hard to even imagine.

The Ocean Cleanup's strategy is a two-front attack. First, it deploys floating "Interceptor" systems to stop the flow of trash from the world's most polluting rivers. 

At the same time, its massive cleanup systems are actively removing the "legacy" plastic that's been accumulating for decades in places like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. 

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So far, the effort has been incredibly successful, having already pulled over 48 million pounds of debris from the world's oceans and rivers.

To tackle a problem this big, Slat's team relies on some seriously smart tech. Its Automatic Debris Imaging System, powered by AI, helps identify and classify plastic "hotspots" in real time, making cleanup efforts far more efficient. 

The Ocean Cleanup hopes to unleash the technology in Japan's waters, aiming to be "a part of the largest cleanup in history."

This kind of forward thinking is exactly what we need. All around the world, innovators are finding new ways to fight plastic pollution. 

One report shows how scientists accidentally created a compostable, vegan spider silk that could replace single-use plastics. Another team is using AI to design a whole new generation of plastics that can all be recycled together. Other researchers are even developing a way to use sunlight to turn old plastic into clean hydrogen fuel.

Slat's ultimate goal is ambitious: to remove 90% of all floating ocean plastic by 2040. It's a huge undertaking, but one that is already making a visible difference and inspiring others to take action, from big companies to individuals making smart plastic-free choices at home. 

As The Ocean Cleanup put it, "Restoring ocean health is no longer a dream, it is a reality."

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