The Ocean Cleanup • Friends for Brands • Brand Activation

The Ocean Cleanup

Creating urgency for the largest cleanup in history.

There are over five trillion pieces of plastic in the world’s oceans and none of them belong there. The Ocean Cleanup is a concept by inventor Boyan Slat. A gigantic ‘scoop’ designed to collect as much as possible of this plastic and remove it from the seas. It’s a project that gained worldwide attention and Friends for Brands has been involved since its earliest days. Together, we got enough people excited to raise over a million euros. It was the first step towards getting this great idea off the ground. The expectation? 90% of the plastic now floating around in our oceans will be removed by 2040.

To bring the technical side of the plan to life for the layman, we developed a simple language of words and icons. This is a communications toolkit that the project employees can use themselves on the job. The financial kickstart came from an online platform and crowdfunding campaign that presented clear facts and figures. Within a year after we got involved, The Ocean Cleanup had grown from a crazy idea by two ambitious, young students to an organization of over 100 volunteers and more than enough resources to actually begin filtering the plastic out of the oceans.

The Ocean Cleanup launched the approach with a major expedition of 30 ships sailing straight through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, conducting research and collecting data. Using the Survey app we developed, the ships mapped out and reported on where the plastic pollution was the most severe. Through this app it was clear to us exactly where the cleanup should start. At present, the cleanup is in full swing. Wondering where we’re at now? Visit TheOceanCleanup.Com to find out.