ET Now GBS Summit 2026: 'Ocean plastic pollution can be solved in decade if waste stopped at source'

New Delhi: Ocean plastic pollution can be dramatically reduced within the next decade if efforts focus on stopping waste at its source, said The Ocean Cleanup founder and chief executive Boyan Slat.

During a session, titled 'The Ocean Reset: Rebooting Earth's Largest System', at the ET Now Global Business Summit, he said that while plastic has become indispensable in modern life, less than 0.1% of global production ends up in oceans, where it damages coral reefs, suffocates marine life and harms coastal economies.

"At current trends, the amount of plastic entering the ocean is set to double by 2060," he said.


Slat traced his personal journey to the problem back to a scuba diving trip to Greece at age 16, where he encountered more plastic bags than fish underwater. That experience led him to establish The Ocean Cleanup with the goal of removing plastic from oceans worldwide.

The organisation initially focused on legacy pollution, particularly the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. After years of testing and redesigning systems, Slat said his team developed technology capable of cleaning an area of ocean roughly the size of a football field every five seconds.

But cleaning existing pollution addresses only part of the problem. "Rivers are the arteries that carry trash from land to sea," he said.