BMW i provides mobility for The Ocean Cleanup

Electric BMW i3s have been provided for the use of people involved in The Ocean Cleanup.

For nearly five years Boyan Slat has been working on his dream to rid the Pacific Ocean of large amounts of waste plastic floating around.

The 24-year-old Dutch student has become world famous with his initiative The Ocean Cleanup which tackles the ‘plastic soup’.

“We are delighted to support The Ocean Cleanup on their mission, because we share the same mindset,” BMW i head Dr Robert Irlinger says.

Awarded as the world’s most sustainable car manufacturer, BMW Group in turn sees the need to address the global challenge of plastic pollution, even though the company is not at the root of it.

At the same time, BMW i continuously strives to maximise the use of recyclates and re-growing materials in their products. In the wider context of a circular economy BMW i is considering the use of recovered plastic from rivers and oceans.

And the BMW i3 itself is up to 95% recyclable.

The ocean cleaning system consists of a 600-metre-long floating tube with a three-metre long ’skirt’. Both the plastic waste and the system are propelled by the ocean current, but the wind and waves only drive the system, because the float is just above the water surface, while the plastic is mainly just below it. The system therefore moves faster than the plastic, allowing the plastic to be caught. About half of the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ could be cleaned every five years using this method, The Ocean Cleanup says.

The device was officially launched in September in San Francisco where the team was supplied with a fully electric BMW i3. In the Netherlands, three BMW i3s models have also been delivered at the new head office of The Ocean Cleanup in Rotterdam to provide electric mobility for Boyan Slat and his team for the coming year. The delivery of the vehicles to the Rotterdam office builds on a longer cooperation that started in 2017 when three BMW i3s were provided to the mobility mix for the event.