Catching Up with The Ocean Cleanup (The Ocean Cleanup)

Head of Environmental and Social Affairs, Michelle Tishler, and Business Development Manager in Latin America, Frank Behrens, discuss their thoughts on a specific pollution problem in Guatemala and how they are researching and preparing solutions that can help. We also talk about the environmental preparations for the forthcoming ocean System 002 launch and dive into the hobbies that inspire these two to help keep the oceans clean.

Senior Project Engineer for the Ocean team, Manon Ait Amarouche, tells us how past experiences, hobbies, and even critics have helped inspire her journey at The Ocean Cleanup. She also hints at some updates coming later this year with the next ocean cleanup system.

Managing Director, Jacob Fonteijne and Director of the Ocean Team, Henk van Dalen look back at another crazy and historic year at The Ocean Cleanup and what it was like to experience it from their perspectives. They also talk about the culture at The Ocean Cleanup and how that relates to keeping the momentum going even through the pandemic.

Flemming Sloth Andersen is a name that will forever be linked to our ocean cleaning operations. Flemming has spent over one year of his life at sea with The Ocean Cleanup, and here - directly from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - he tells us the ups and the downs, from early prototype challenges to System 03’s unprecedented plastic extractions.

Flemming takes us through his remarkable career on land and at sea and gives insight into what makes our work in the GPGP so unique. He also tells us of his deep conviction that his generation has a responsibility to the next, and how his six grandchildren inspire him to keep cleaning year after year.

Trying to tie up an entire year at The Ocean Cleanup is an impossible thing, especially in a year with so many monumental projects happening at the same time. Listen as the Executive Producer of Documentary Content, and host of Catching Up, Dan van der Kooy, looks back at some of the conversations he had throughout 2022 with team members from all around the planet.

This month's podcast is from the remote and windy shore of the Rio Motagua. Robert Leijgraaf, aka Bobby, Project Engineer at The Ocean Cleanup, sits with our host, Dan van der Kooy, in the fishing village of El Quetzalito, Guatemala.

We're about to deploy the second Interceptor Solution in Guatemala. Bobby talks about the need for another Interceptor Barricade at the end of the Rio Motagua and what we learned from the first project in the country. Interceptor Barricade XL will be about 300km upstream from the first Interceptor Barricade. If it all goes well, the combined impact of the two deployments will stop river pollution right before it enters the Caribbean Sea.

Learn more about our new deployment here.

Ridding the oceans of plastic costs money - lots of it. As a non-profit project, every cent The Ocean Cleanup spends comes from a donor somewhere in the world. So how do our supporters know we’re spending their hard-earned cash correctly?

Catching Up speaks to Joy Gao, Finance Director at The Ocean Cleanup, as she cuts through the numbers to answer the big questions: how do we spend our money? How can supporters trust that their donations - from kids’ piggy bank savings to billionaire philanthropy - are spent the right way? And just how did she end up choosing Rotterdam and The Ocean Cleanup over a possible career in K-pop?

Find all of our podcasts and learn more about our mission to rid the oceans of plastic at theoceancleanup.com/podcasts.

"Science has always been my passion.” Sarah-Jeanne Royer, our resident oceanographer and research scientist on plastic degradation, has a storied background. In this episode, she takes us from her childhood in Quebec to catching a wave and peaceful island life in Hawaii… with a stop along the way to study for her degree while in a bunker in war-torn Afghanistan.

Sarah tells a slightly worse-for-wear Dan van der Kooy how plastic marine debris on Hawaiian beaches is similar to trash found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, along with the importance of staying focused (and very, very patient) when conducting research. She also ponders whether or not it’s worth spending time and energy to handle emotion-led criticism (“it makes me sad”) and tells us why we’re all “shedding plastic” when we work out.

Senior Partnership Manager Fleur Elverding and Social Media Manager Viktorija Gaizutyte talk about how the #TeamSeas campaign and working with Mr. Beast and Mark Rober has opened the door for an entirely new generation of supporters. We also look back at how “the new normal” has affected social media and partnerships at The Ocean Cleanup and what new and exciting things are coming in 2022.

Direct from the Guatemalan jungle, we catch up with our Head of Creative and Documentary Productions, Florent Beauverd, and ask him why documenting the largest cleanup in history is so important to the future of our planet. Florent also speaks about his background in extreme sports and how he has evolved in building trust through technology and creative multimedia production. 

It all started with an idea on a napkin...and now #TeamSeas is celebrating 20 million lbs (9 million kilograms!) of trash removed around the world. Catching Up speaks to Matt Fitzgerald, co-founder of the #TeamSeas campaign, about why he, Mark Rober, and MrBeast decided to combine forces to clean oceans, rivers, and beaches worldwide - and how the true legacy of the campaign is the passion it inspires every day.

Matt tells us how #TeamSeas has captured the imagination of millions of young people worldwide, and how The Ocean Cleanup's Jamaica deployments are spreading knowledge and awareness far beyond our Interceptors. He reveals how getting arrested with his grandmother during a climate protest inspired him to continue his work as an organizer in the climate movement - and he shares some truly shocking theories on the tooth fairy...

From alongside Interceptor 007, Operations Manager Alex Mills talks about some of the highs and lows that he has been a part of during his career at The Ocean Cleanup, along with what goes on behind the scenes during the assembly, operations, and maintaining an Interceptor in various locations around the world. He also "skates" into some of his favorite hobbies and what the last month has been like for him throughout the exhausting experience of setting up Interceptor 007 in Los Angeles County.

It’s been a stellar year for The Ocean Cleanup. New deployments, global negotiations, and an incredible global catch total of over 8 million kg (almost 18 million lb!) of trash removed from oceans and rivers worldwide.

So as a special holiday gift, Catching Up is serving a selection of 2023 highlights from our chats with crew members (and special guests) this year - curated and presented by your always-festive host, Dan van der Kooy.

From the entire crew of The Ocean Cleanup, we thank you for listening and coming with us on this mission to rid the oceans of plastic. We wish each of you a very happy new year, and we can’t wait to share 2024 with you - so make sure you’re subscribed.

You can donate to help clean our oceans - join us at theoceancleanup.com/donate

River Field Scientist Thomas Mani and Recycling Manager John Verhoeven answer the tough questions about trash – from how it ends up in a body of water, how we are using a new app to track it, and how we can use waste as a resource in the future. They also share some of their personal experiences and how important it is for them to see the problem first-hand.

A small team from The Ocean Cleanup traveled to Jamaica to continue research and business development for the gully pollution problem in Kingston Harbour. In this special on-location episode, we sat with Renata Correia, Mathilde Wiedemann, Bastiaan Dubois, and Jasper van Eijk to discuss the research, engineering, and business plan to help this famous Caribbean country find the right solution for this immense problem.

Plastic pollution afflicts the whole world, and solving it requires countries, governments and other organizations to work together. To rid the oceans of plastic, we need action at every level: upstream change alongside our downstream cleanup, for a full life-cycle solution. But how do you get nearly 200 countries to agree on a plan? 

João Ribeiro-Bidaoui, General Counsel and Director of Global Public Affairs, speaks to Catching Up to explain how The Ocean Cleanup isn’t just cleaning plastic, but is also building partnerships and working to influence anti-plastic pollution policies at the highest global levels - not only within the countries where we operate, but also in the critical negotiations for a potential UN Plastics Treaty.

It’s not just about plastic - it’s about people, too.

Suleman Audu, Environmental Manager at The Ocean Cleanup, takes us from his schoolboy Environmental Club days back in Nigeria to his vital role in our mission: making sure our river deployments bring the right benefits for the people living alongside them.

Every river is unique - and so is every riverside community, particularly when the river is vital for local needs. Suleman explains how he and his colleagues work to understand plastic pollution from the local’s point of view - and use our deployments to help them to solve it.

Suleman also speaks to the power of empathy, how his experiences help him connect with our stakeholders and listen to what matters to them, and his pride and passion in joining our mission to rid the oceans of plastic.

From Bangkok’s Chao Phraya river, River Surveyor Engineer David Higgins explains how he identifies which rivers can most benefit from our intervention. David shares the emotions he has experienced in his ‘dream job’ with The Ocean Cleanup, reveals how a new river operation takes shape, and shares his personal journey from surfing on the shores of southwest Ireland to intercepting plastic in the world’s most polluting rivers.

Ali and Lucy Tabrizi, Director and Assistant Director of the Netflix documentary Seaspiracy, sat down with our Lead Ocean Scientist, Matthias Egger, to talk about the importance of science, technology, and research in telling impactful stories using the latest technology. We also chat about the making of the film and discuss one of the statistics from The Ocean Cleanup's research on ghost nets in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The technology at The Ocean Cleanup goes way beyond only what is visible in the oceans and rivers. Our IT Manager, Steven Bink, discusses his role in the history of the organization and how the excitement from another well known technology company is opening the door to an exciting future of ridding the world's oceans of plastic.

Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, describes his contrasting emotions following the first trial of the Interceptor Trashfence in Guatemala. Boyan shares how he takes learnings from disappointments, updates us on The Ocean Cleanup’s progress in the Pacific Ocean over the last year, and reveals how operations to rid our oceans of plastic are ready to be scaled up across the globe.

Alice Collins is the Project Manager for our upcoming Interceptor 007 deployment in Los Angeles County. After a recent globe-straddling trip to visit Interceptor projects in Malaysia and the US, Alice finds a moment to sit down and talk us through what makes this very visible deployment so different.

Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, Boyan Slat, went with the project team to Guatemala to explore solutions for the pollution problem in one of the most polluting rivers in the world. He shares his first impressions of what he experienced during his time there and we talk about upcoming projects for The Ocean Cleanup, the recently announced partnership with The Coca Cola Company, and what’s important for future planning.

The Ocean Cleanup is heading back to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with System 03, so Catching Up speaks to Senior Offshore Representative Grete Ernst ahead of her latest trip to the Pacific Ocean.

Grete has front-row seats for the largest cleanup in history and shares her excitement at heading out once more. But Grete has many tales to tell from her time offshore, and she reveals what life is really like with the same crew for weeks on end, with land nearly a week’s journey away - as she says, almost like a different planet.

In such a key year for our oceans, Grete tells us how she'll be helping us optimize System 03 following its winter upgrades to make us even more impactful and efficient in cleaning plastic. From the Global Plastics Treaty to the importance of creative thinking in engineering, Grete gives us the full picture of cleaning the ocean - from up close.

Rae Town, Kingston, Jamaica: an iconic location and the perfect place to catch up on The Ocean Cleanup's Jamaica project. With five Interceptors deployed in gullies around the city (and more on the way) one guest wasn't enough: Dan van der Kooy speaks to Alecia Beaufort, Operations Manager for Clean Harbours Jamaica, and Dominik Haertl, Business Development Manager at The Ocean Cleanup, about how this enormous project got started and how we've responded to Kingston's unique circumstances.

Alecia and Dominik speak about how local people - from fishing communities to visiting schoolchildren - are benefiting and learning from our Interceptor deployments, and how our collaboration with local government and vital partners such as the GraceKennedyFoundation and Clean Harbours Jamaica isn't just about intercepting plastic, but also about a wider project to improve quality of life for Kingston's community.

Director of our Ocean team, Henk van Dalen, and Interceptor Senior Engineer, Ian Smith, sit down together (socially distanced) at The Ocean Cleanup’s Rotterdam headquarters to reflect over the last few months and look ahead at what’s to come. The conversation delves into the topics of inspirational rap music and how past experiences are bringing them to “the verge of something big.”

2024 Inspirations | Looking towards the future

2024 was another year of impact and protecting the future of our planet. In this year-end wrap-up episode, we look back at the year’s accomplishments and how future generations can be inspired to make a difference.

From three large Interceptor deployments to another year of cleaning legacy plastic from The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. With the help of our incredible crew and dedicated supporters like you, we are making extraordinary progress and delivering tangible and measurable impact.  

To stay up to date with our latest developments follow us on social media: ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠TikTok⁠, ⁠X⁠, or our website.

This month, our host, Dan van der Kooy, records the 50th episode of Catching Up in Kingston, Jamaica, sitting on a fishing boat with Jerome "Cliff" Clifford and Colin "Dean" Palmer. Cliff and Dean are two local fishermen from Seaview Gardens, a neighborhood along Sandy Gully in Kingston, Jamaica.

Their neighborhood is directly affected by the trash pouring out of the gully each day. Cliff and Dean share stories of what it was like prior to the pollution and discuss the importance of cleaning it up. They share their pride in being part of a major project like the new Interceptor solution and their desire to leave a better future for the local community, fishermen, and future generations.

We also hear about the community's involvement in The Ocean Cleanup's deployments in the area. Their goal is to preserve the environment, ensuring that future generations have somewhere to go fishing, something to eat, and a strong community. Right now, they're making history to make sure there's a future.

Kingston, Jamaica, is our first Interceptor city. Learn more about it here: ⁠https://theoceancleanup.com/updates/kingston-jamaica-the-first-interceptor-city/⁠

Thank you to all our listeners! We can't believe we have recorded 50 episodes, and we wouldn't have been able to do so without your support.

To stay up to date with our latest developments, subscribe to our newsletter at theoceancleanup.com or follow us on social media: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, X.

Talking all things plastic processing, Catch Management Director, Stella van den Berg, walks us through how we will process the plastic we collected during the testing of System 002 in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Processing ocean plastic isn't an easy task, but the knowledge we gain in re-purposing this plastic will be crucial not only for The Ocean Cleanup, but for the planet.

With a few Florida manatees for company, The Ocean Cleanup’s Head of Communications Joost Dubois gives us the story behind telling the story. Joost tells us what drives him to keep growing the story of the largest cleanup in history, explains how The Ocean Cleanup’s name stands as a mark of our integrity and transparency, and rolls back the years to share the highlights of his journey so far as our self-styled ‘Chief Promises Officer’.

In the latest conversation, we caught up with Ellen, Legal Counsel, and Lourens, Head of Data & Monitoring at The Ocean Cleanup. They’ll share why we need lawyers and applied researchers at The Ocean Cleanup, and what the two have in common. Ellen also explains the new legal challenges of working with plastic pollution for something that has never been done before.

Eight weeks into the System 002 mission and three years since first deploying our technology in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch we are catching plastic. The Ocean Cleanup's Reijnder de Feijter, has been here through it all. In this episode, he takes over Catching Up and discusses initial environmental findings with the onboard Protected Species Observer Sebastian Orue. They reflect on what it's like to see so much waste removed from the ocean and how this impacts their own lives.

In this premier episode, we catch up with Lonneke Holierhoek, Director of Operations, and Eline Spek, Program Manager, to talk about the COVID-19 crisis and how it has affected our mission to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. They also discuss future projects as well as some of their favorite behind-the-scenes moments and inspirations from their different roles.

As we gear up to launch our first product made with plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, we caught up with Recycling and Material Development Manager, Eva Snijder, and Project Engineer, Chris Reichard, to talk about our Full Circle process of recycling the plastic catch and turning it into a (re)usable material. They also look back on when we said goodbye to a legendary pipe in The Ocean Cleanup’s history.

Alongside the newly-deployed Interceptor 006 in Guatemala, CEO and Founder of The Ocean Cleanup, Boyan Slat, reflects on the four-year campaign to intercept tsunamis of trash in this one-of-a-kind river. From perseverance to partnerships, Boyan explains the vital ingredients for a successful launch and celebrates the 1m kilograms of trash already intercepted.

Boyan tells us more on a range of topics, from the importance of the negotiations for a Global Plastic Treaty to our plans for improving efficiency in our GPGP cleanup. He also speaks of his personal growth during the last year, how he handles the responsibilities that come with success, and gives his hot take on one of 1995's biggest movies.

Not everyone who dedicates their life to dirty oceans and rivers comes from somewhere close to a body of water. Matthias Egger, Head of Environmental and Social Affairs, hails from the Swiss mountains and dedicates his life to the science of making oceans and rivers cleaner for marine life and humans in the future.

He discusses how we help local communities by addressing global problems through a holistic but specific lens. While solving pollution on a small scale and changing people's lives, we work on global solutions. We use the data from river deployments in various countries to develop a blueprint for the future by writing Environmental and Social Impact Assessments. This way, we mitigate risks, monitor our actions to create a larger impact on the world, publish research, and strive to make upstream changes. For example, Matthias shares his experience at the INC negotiations, where over 160 countries work on the first international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution.

He also talks about his personal experiences throughout his six years working for The Ocean Cleanup and what this means to him as a father.

Learn more about how we contribute to environmental and social impact here: https://theoceancleanup.com/environmental-and-social-impact/

Not all lawyers stay in the office or the courtroom. Letícia Abreu Passos de Souza grew up seeing the damage caused by pollution in her native Brazil - and now she’s using the law to do something about it.

As Director of Legal and Public Affairs at The Ocean Cleanup, Letícia guides our crew through different laws and rules in countries around the world - as well as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. She tells Catching Up how understanding local laws helps us work with local authorities in the best way and makes our Interceptor deployments more efficient - helping us catch plastic faster and with greater impact.

Letícia tells us the importance of having ‘boots on the ground’ to truly understand how the law can help tackle plastic pollution in a local community, and shares her hopes for a new world effort to solve the problem through a Global Plastics Treaty.

Learn more on how we contribute to law and public policy here: https://theoceancleanup.com/global-public-affairs/

See our blogpost on cleanup and the Global Plastics Treaty here: https://theoceancleanup.com/updates/global-plastics-treaty-why-legacy-plastic-cleanup-is-essential/

Every non-profit stands or falls on its finances. Luckily, The Ocean Cleanup’s new Chief Financial Officer, Stacey Santoso, brings a wealth of experience, first from the corporate world and later from her time as Head of Global Finance at Greenpeace. Stacey describes the passions driving her financial career and the importance of local empathy when operating globally. Stacey also shares fascinating personal insights into how she perceives cleanup operations in the country of her birth, Indonesia.

We're in Bangkok, Thailand, where Interceptor 019 has been deployed as our first step in cleaning the Chao Phraya - one of the world's busiest rivers.

Charlotte de Jong, Business Development Manager at The Ocean Cleanup, has spent years preparing for this moment, collaborating with dozens of partners, and facing the challenges of placing an Interceptor in a prime central location in one of the world's great cities.

Catching Up hears how Charlotte has worked together with Thai administrators, volunteers, and businesses to ensure Interceptor 019 has maximum impact and visibility for Bangkok's residents and how our technology and expertise require local expertise and ownership to complete our mission of ridding the oceans of plastic.

Read more about Interceptor 019 in Bangkok here: https://theoceancleanup.com/updates/bangkok-begins-the-ocean-cleanups-interceptor-019-comes-to-thailand/

Find out how we're intercepting plastic in the world's most polluting rivers here: https://theoceancleanup.com/rivers/

It’s ‘Bring Your Kids To Work Day’ at The Ocean Cleanup HQ!

Your host, Dan van der Kooy, has traveled the world braving all kinds of hazardous environments to bring you the stories of our mission. But is he ready for his toughest test yet?

We’re not just ridding the oceans of plastic for today: we’re doing it for the next generation, too - and they have some thoughts!

Here, children of crew members tell Dan how proud they are of their parent’s work at The Ocean Cleanup, why it’s so essential to protect fish and other animals in the oceans, and how they want to help other kids all over the world: as Milly puts it, ‘we should all help and make this a better place.’

All of us at The Ocean Cleanup say a huge thank you to Emma, Theo, Milly, Suvie, Harvey, Quentin, Noah, Jacob, Aurelia, Rex, Rafael, Flip and Amy for their fantastic appearances - some in their second language - in this special episode!

To see how we’re cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, see here: https://theoceancleanup.com/oceans/

Most ocean plastic comes from rivers: see how we’re deploying Interceptors in the world’s most polluting rivers here: https://theoceancleanup.com/rivers/

We recently announced our first official partner product with Coldplay - check out the Notebook Edition LP of their new album ‘Moon Music’ containing 70% recycled river plastic intercepted in Guatemala - see how we did it here: https://theoceancleanup.com/updates/the-ocean-cleanup-and-coldplay-announce-lp-made-using-plastic-intercepted-in-guatemala/

Exciting times for our Oceans program: record catch figures, improved efficiency, and in transition to System 03 - the perfect time to catch up with our new Director Oceans a.i., Joël Jansen, so he can tell us how it’s all going. Joël discusses our scale-up and the measures taken in our constant effort to reduce our environmental footprint. He also speaks about cynical social media reactions, how his journey to The Ocean Cleanup began many years ago with a Panini sticker album, and how he is inspired by the environment and his family to continue striving to rid the oceans of plastic.

In The Ocean Cleanup’s first podcast recorded from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, two senior project engineers on board the Maersk Trader, Fedde Poppenk and Fraser Keil, give us a glimpse into the initial days, challenges, and successes of the System 002, aka Jenny, mission. When offshore, you fail fast and learn fast, but the insights from this trip set the stage for the future of the campaign and the cleanup itself.

This month, we sit down with Tarkessh Mahendran, our Waste Manager in Malaysia, to discuss the vibe in our Kuala Lumpur regional office and the importance of having a team on the ground, physically located in Southeast Asia. Tarkessh speaks about cultural differences between working in Malaysia and Rotterdam, such as the subtler communication styles in Asia compared to more direct approaches in Europe.

He also gives an update on the new sorting center being built on the Klang River to improve plastic recycling, and what this will mean for the future of our Interceptor projects on the Klang.

Data is nothing without the brains to understand it correctly - and we have just the brain for the job. From plastic-infested riverbanks in the Caribbean to diplomatic meetings in Kenya, Renata Correia has spent four years crossing the world with The Ocean Cleanup, analyzing and enhancing the data we gather on plastic pollution. Renata takes us through her journey: from her horror at her first sight of the scale of plastic pollution in Guatemala, to her current role as the 'data whisperer' in our Rivers program.

Every river is different, and solid data helps us see where plastic pollution comes from and lets us measure our impact in tackling it. As Head of Performance and Analysis for our Rivers team, Renata tells Catching Up how her constant curiosity keeps her searching for new answers, and how she guides an expert team of scientists around the world to connect the dots and spot the patterns across a planet's worth of plastic data.

Find our more about The Ocean Cleanup's work researching plastic in rivers here: https://theoceancleanup.com/updates/a-tale-of-3-rivers-intercontinental-river-research-collaboration/

and the 1000 rivers around the world that our models predict as the top polluters here: https://theoceancleanup.com/sources/

Ridding the oceans of plastic doesn’t start on the sea - it starts in the lab. Head of Research Laurent Lebreton calls in from New Zealand to tell us how research and data-driven science form the foundation for everything The Ocean Cleanup does - and how better data make us better cleaners. Through academic conferences to long-term ocean research voyages, Laurent speaks of his pride at his team’s pioneering work gathering data on plastic pollution, and guides us through the story of how a startup evolved into a leader in ocean plastic research.

After three years in the Dominican Republic, Operations Manager Erik Holmbom is preparing to return to HQ in Rotterdam. Catching Up speaks to Erik to find out what he's learned during his posting in the Caribbean, and how Interceptor 004 has overcome initial problems to become a valuable and appreciated presence for the community in Santo Domingo.

Erik describes how working at The Ocean Cleanup has rewired his brain to solve problems and how partners – ranging from the Dominican Navy to UNDP – are crucial for our operations on the ground. Erik also answers your questions and reveals a slightly unusual lifelong dream: to sail a 6.5m bathtub across the Atlantic – all alone.

Ocean Operations Manager Glen Kissack talks about how he juggles the relationship between Maersk Supply Service and The Ocean Cleanup –  both in the office as well as offshore. He also looks back at his offshore career and reflects on his time with ‘Jenny.’

Director Asia, Steven Paalman, talks about the experience of traveling with Boyan Slat and Team Asia to assist in progressing various river projects and meet key partners in the region. He also shares his views on the importance of maintaining these relationships in a mix of cultures for the future of intercepting trash from some of the most important polluting rivers in Asia.

Gently floating along the Rio Ozama - Dominican style - with Erik Holmbom, our project manager in the Dominican Republic. In this episode, we chatted about the effects of COVID-19 and the importance of the UNDP and the Dominican Armada for the future of the Interceptor program in Santo Domingo.

This week the team will embark on the next mission into Great Pacific Garbage Patch with System 002. Its nickname is inspired by (another) character from a Tom Hanks movie and the design features several substantial updates. Prior to “lift off” we sat down with Head of Technology, Arjen Tjallema and Senior Project Engineer, Reijnder de Feijter to discuss the preparations behind this new system and our expectations for it as we return to this infamous gyre in the Pacific Ocean.

How do we clean the oceans? With a little help from our friends, of course - and Ewan Topping, Senior Partnership Manager at The Ocean Cleanup, is the man who helps us find them. Hundreds of organizations collaborate with The Ocean Cleanup, and Ewan tells us the key to attracting the right support: identify a shared problem and find partners motivated to solve it.

But it's not all about big organizations - many of you, our listeners, support The Ocean Cleanup each month. Ewan tells us how this is now easier than ever with our new fundraising platform, ready for anyone around the world to help us rid the oceans of plastic.

Does your organization want to help rid the oceans of plastic? Read on: https://theoceancleanup.com/partners-and-funders/

Want to make an impact? Start fundraising for The Ocean Cleanup here: https://fund.theoceancleanup.com/