French adventurer Yvan Bourgnon—also known as the ocean’s gladiator—became disillusioned by the global plastic phenomena killing his wonderful home: the sea.
This inspired him to start SeaCleaners a project whose mission it is to clean up the world’s mess—cough cough coca cola and nestlé. With this incredible feat ahead he set sail and designed a plastic eating catamaran that would enable this feat: the Manta.
The Manta, a boat for the protection of the oceans, and designed to protect marine biodiversity
The Manta is a 56m (184ft) catamaran powered by renewable energy (electric motors) and advanced sail technology, and built using low-carbon steel. Inside it stores a waste collector capable of processing and recovering up to 3 tonnes of waste per hour—including microplastics as small as 10mm and macrowaste as big as 1m. It’s objective? collecting up to 10,000 tonnes of waste per year.
What makes it special?
The Manta can process up to 95% of the collected plastic waste WHILST AT SEA. They do this by converting the waste into electricity through a waste-to-energy unit onboard. This energy then powers the boat’s electricity use.
What is a Waste-to-Energy plant?
Waste to energy converts waste through the process of pyrolysis (burning). it is a very common method of waste disposal in Switzerland and Denmark, and if built properly the plant emits no CO2 or pollutants as these are filtered. Check out Copenhagen’s waste-to-energy plant with a ski resort on top.
Scientific Vessel
The Manta is also a scientific vessel—hosting up to 10 scientists and having a research faciiity onboard. The data collected is then completely open-source.
