The Fallacy of Plastic Cleanup Technology

Ocean-sweeping booms, river barriers and robotic seafloor collectors get a lot of media attention as the answer to plastic pollution. The evidence tells a different story. This keynote looks at what plastic removal technologies can and cannot do. Global plastic production is set to triple by 2060, and cleanup cannot keep pace. Two hundred ocean cleanup devices running for 130 years would capture only about 5% of the world's floating plastics, while also causing bycatch, killing surface-dwelling marine life and emitting CO₂. Most removal technologies have never been tested for how much plastic they actually remove or what harm they do to the environment. The plastic they collect usually ends up in landfills or incinerators. Cleanup also brings risks of greenwashing, plastic-offset and credit schemes, and shifting costs onto communities with fewer resources. The keynote argues that cleanup is at best a temporary, local tool for pollution hotspots, not a global solution. Real progress depends on prevention: binding cuts in production, safer product design, and polluter-pays principles. Any removal efforts should be held to independent, science-based assessment standards.