Boyan Slat started by going after plastic already floating in the Pacific. More than a decade later, his nonprofit is seeing progress by stopping that trash before it gets there.

Slat launched Ocean Cleanup at 18, with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch as an early focus. But CleanTechnica reported that the scale of that pollution pushed the group toward an upstream strategy instead.

That shift led Ocean Cleanup to deploy solar-powered “Interceptor” systems that catch trash in rivers and creeks before it reaches the ocean. In Los Angeles County, one of those systems sits where Ballona Creek empties into Santa Monica Bay.

It removed 143,710 pounds, about 65,200 kilograms, of trash from the water in 2025.

Floating debris is guided by a V-shaped boom toward a barge. A conveyor belt lifts the trash from the water, and an automated shuttle sorts it into six dumpsters. The system can store about 10 tons of waste.

Ocean Cleanup research found that about 1,000 rivers are linked to nearly 80 percent of the plastic that enters the ocean each year, and that rivers account for 90 percent of ocean pollution.

CleanTechnica reported that beach communities south of Ballona Creek are now spending less on grooming because less debris is washing ashore.

James Patterson, who oversees the Ballona Creek system, said, “We have to turn the faucet off before we can scoop the ocean, or else all we’re doing is taking out legacy trash to replace it with new trash.”

He also said, “It may seem simple, but truly a master of engineering goes on inside of these.”

Patterson said expansion will depend on the needs of each site, not a single standard design. “There’s no one size fits all,” he said.

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