Lewis Pugh, OIG, the long-time United Nations Patron of the Oceans, wrote about the importance of rivers during his 32-day stage swim 507 km down the Hudson River in New York “Rivers are the arteries of our planet…a healthy planet is impossible without clean, healthy rivers.”

The Ocean Cleanup is part of an innovative global solution to keep those arteries clean and healthy.

Boyan Slat (@boyanslat), founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, created trash interceptors that use solar power to collect trash floating towards the ocean downstream in rivers. The interceptors have been deployed around the world from Malaysia, Jamaica, Guatemala, and Indonesia to Los Angeles.

The trash interceptors are currently deployed in 20 rivers in 10 countries that have collected over 115 million pounds of trash with a goal is to bring interceptors to 30 cities around the world in an aim to prevent over 30% of all plastics from entering the ocean.

The newest installation of The Ocean Cleanup will be in the San Gabriel River and the Los Angeles River both which dump all kinds of trash and plastics in Long Beach where the Olympic 10 km open water swim as well as the sailing, kiteboarding, canoe sprinting, and wakeboarding events will be held along the shoreline at the LA28 Olympics.

A great solution.

Learn more about The Ocean Cleanup here.

© 2026 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

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