Huge Barrier Isn’t Trapping Plastic Waste in Pacific Ocean

A ship tows The Ocean Cleanup’s first buoyant trash-collecting device toward the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco en route to the Pacific Ocean, on Sept. 8, 2018. Lorin Eleni Gill/AP

LOS ANGELES—A floating device sent to corral a swirling island of trash between California and Hawaii has not swept up any plastic waste—but the young innovator behind the project said on Dec. 17, that a fix was in the works.

Boyan Slat, 24, who launched the Pacific Ocean cleanup project, said the speed of the solar-powered barrier isn’t allowing it to hold on to the plastic it catches.