Amazon Web Services has announced a partnership with The Ocean Cleanup, a non-profit organization dedicated to removing plastic from our oceans and rivers, to leverage all of AWS’s AI, machine learning, and cloud computing capabilities to help clean the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The goal is to eliminate 90% of floating plastic in the oceans by 2040.
Recent investigations by The Ocean Cleanup revealed that the GPGP is impairing the ocean’s ability to regulate climate and harming marine life. Removing these plastics is crucial to protect marine ecosystems, preserve biodiversity, and prevent microplastics from entering the food chain. To date, The Ocean Cleanup has removed 29,000 tons of marine debris worldwide, but now faces the enormous challenge of locating and extracting dispersed plastic fragments still polluting the oceans.
AWS’s AI-powered detection systems and cloud infrastructure will enable faster, larger-scale efforts by precisely tracking the buildup of plastics and creating predictive models for debris movement. This will optimize resource management and operational efficiency, significantly increasing The Ocean Cleanup’s capacity to detect, track, and remove ocean plastics while safeguarding marine life.
“Plastic pollution is one of the most urgent environmental challenges of our time, and The Ocean Cleanup’s mission is vital for the health of our planet,” says Dr. Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon.com. “This partnership demonstrates how cloud technology and artificial intelligence can be powerful tools for environmental management, transforming ocean data into actionable insights and serving as a model for how technology can confront these critical environmental issues worldwide.”
To address the vast scale and complexity of ocean plastic pollution, AWS and The Ocean Cleanup will focus on two critical initiatives that tackle current technological limitations and challenges:
Development of an AI-based system for enhanced detection and tracking of ocean plastics: By developing and deploying an advanced AI and machine learning platform, The Ocean Cleanup will be able to more effectively identify, track, and predict plastic accumulation in the oceans. Initially, this effort will focus on creating “hotspot hunting” capabilities in the GPGP, where floating plastic is unevenly dispersed across the ocean surface. AWS will provide diverse technologies, from IoT, satellites, and edge computing to deployment of drones and resilient floating devices to precisely track plastic buildup. Leveraging high-performance computing for advanced data models, AWS will assist in creating a “plastic navigation” system that forecasts debris movement and optimizes cleanup operations. This system will integrate data from multiple sources, including open data mechanisms and The Ocean Cleanup’s own models, to direct vessels to optimal collection zones based on near real-time measurements.
Implementation of a cloud infrastructure for marine life protection: Using AI-driven innovations, AWS will help The Ocean Cleanup further improve its marine life detection systems. Automating this process will reduce the need for protected species observers—people tasked with monitoring cleanup operations around the clock—thereby lowering costs and enabling more resources to be directed toward plastic extraction.
“The latest innovations and cutting-edge technology have always been at the heart of our vision to free the world’s oceans from plastic,” says Boyan Slat, CEO and founder of The Ocean Cleanup. “Our partnership with AWS has the potential to significantly enhance our capabilities. With their technology, we can better locate critical plastic hotspots, optimize our cleanup operations, and ensure we protect marine ecosystems while removing harmful plastic waste. Our ultimate goal: a 90% reduction in global plastic pollution in the oceans by 2040.”
The success of this partnership will be measured by the amount of plastic removed from oceans and rivers around the world. Equipping The Ocean Cleanup with AWS’s AI-driven detection systems and cloud infrastructure will greatly boost the efficiency and effectiveness of global plastic cleanup efforts. Together, AWS and The Ocean Cleanup are not only accelerating ocean cleaning but also demonstrating how technology can be developed and applied to protect the planet’s most vital ecosystems.