The Ocean Cleanup: Coldplay to sponsor river plastic extractor

The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch non-profit developing advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic, announced its collaboration with musicians and philanthropists Coldplay.

As informed, the band will directly support the non-profit’s mission by sponsoring an Interceptor, The Ocean Cleanup’s solution to extract plastic from rivers before entering the ocean.

This collaboration helps to take another significant step in tackling the world’s 1,000 most polluting rivers.

Since 2019, The Ocean Cleanup has announced Interceptor solutions for heavily polluting waterways in countries worldwide, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Dominican Republic, Vietnam, the United States, Jamaica, and Thailand. These initial deployments lay the groundwork for The Ocean Cleanup to prepare for scaling up to 1,000 rivers, allowing them to fine tune their business model and technology. Once they have achieved several successful deployments in these first rivers, they will accelerate Interceptor installments into more countries and even more rivers over the coming years.

In December 2020, The Ocean Cleanup and Finnish crane manufacturer Konecranes partnered up to design, manufacture, and service The Ocean Cleanup’s Interceptor – an important step towards the system’s large-scale deployment.

Now, Coldplay has agreed to fund Interceptor 005, Neon Moon 1, currently being manufactured by Konecranes at MHE-Demag facility in Malaysia.

The Interceptor is expected to be completed in late spring 2021 and deployed within Malaysia — thanks to the established partnerships in the region, operations can commence as soon as possible, according to The Ocean Cleanup.

Working together with local partners, The Ocean Cleanup said it will ensure Interceptor 005 is installed in an optimal location for removing large amounts of waste from rivers.

“Without action, there could be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050, which is why The Ocean Cleanup’s work is so vital. We’re proud to sponsor Interceptor 005 – aka Neon Moon 1 – which will catch thousands of tons of waste before it reaches the ocean,” Coldplay said, commenting on the sponsorship of Interceptor 005.

As The Ocean Cleanup begins scaling up to deploy more solutions in rivers worldwide, this partnership is said to exemplify how philanthropists, individuals, and corporations can take part in solving this global problem.