Los Angeles • A trash collection device deployed to corral plastic litter floating in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii has broken apart and will be hauled back to dry land for repairs.
Boyan Slat, who launched the Pacific Ocean cleanup project, told NBC News last week that the 2,000-foot-long floating boom will be towed 800 miles to Hawaii.
If it can’t be repaired there, it will be loaded on a barge and returned to its home port of Alameda, Calif.
Slat said he's disappointed, but not discouraged and pledged that operations would resume as soon as possible.