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A young Dutch inventor is widening his effort to clean up floating(浮动的) plastic from the Pacific Ocean. He has developed a floating device(设备) to trap plastic waste moving into rivers before it reaches the oceans.
Boyan Slat was just 18 years old when he invented a system for catching waste in the ocean. He also founded an environmental group called "The Ocean Cleanup". Its purpose is to develop the system. Last year, Slat showed the next step:a floating device called Interceptor. It removes plastic out of rivers. The device is powered by energy from the sun. "The 1, 000 rivers are responsible for about 80% of plastic going into the world's oceans, " said Slat. Three of the machines have already been used. Each machine costs about $775, 660, but the cost might drop as production increases.
Since they were used, the machines have been doing very well, collecting the plastic bottles and all the rubbish in the rivers. According to Slat, it is necessary to close "the tap", which means preventing more plastic from reaching the ocean in the first place. He wanted to clean them all in the next five years. "This is not going to be easy, but if we do get this done, we could truly make our oceans again, " said Slat.
The device is designed to be safe in rivers. Its nose is shaped to change directions to keep it away from larger floating things. It works by guiding plastic waste into an opening in the front of the device. The waste is then carried inside the machine where it is dropped into containers. The device sends a text message to local operators that can come and empty it when it is full.