"The reason why the Wright brothers were successful wasn't because they had the most resources, but because they understood how invention works. You have to iterate quickly, and you should be prepared to fail. Because things often don't go as planned."

– Boyan Slat

When he was 16, Boyan Slat decided to try and rid the ocean of the excessive rubbish that accumulates exponentially every year.

On a scuba diving trip to Greece, Slat was shocked to see “more plastic bags than fish”. Subsequent research from the young Dutchman highlighted a very serious issue. At present, the ocean is full of an estimated 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic and each year roughly 8 million metric tons of plastic is discharged into the ocean. Plastic of this nature tends to disturb the environment the oceans habitants, with fish, birds and all manner of sea life seriously or fatally affected.

Slat laterally came to a seriously inventive solution: “Instead of chasing individual patches of trash across the ocean, he figured he could flip the scenario and use the ocean's currents to move the trash to a stationary device instead”.

Later that year, in order to raise awareness and capital, Slat presented his views and idea in a TEDx event which it went viral and precipitation into a Kickstarter program.

In 2013, Slat dropped out of college in his native Netherlands and started The Ocean Cleanup foundation. The goal was to create a machine, which was designed to remove plastic debris from the ocean by placing floating barriers in strategic points along ocean currents. The currents would ultimately push the debris to a collected area, and then funnel the trash toward central removers. This process would effectively cleanse the zone in approximately 5 years.  

Later that year, in order to raise awareness and capital, Slat presented his views and idea in a TEDx event which it went viral and precipitation into a Kickstarter program.

In November 2014, he won the Champions of the Earth award of the United Nations Environment Programme, becomming the youngest-ever recipient.

After raising hundreds of thousands on Kickstarter and from other investors, Slat worked with engineers and scientists to realise his idea. On June 22, 2016, The Ocean Cleanup launched a prototype device in the North Sea. If everything goes according to plan, they'll be able to launch a pilot system late next year.
 

The Ocean Cleanup website

Read more here and here