Maersk and the Dutch non-profit The Ocean Cleanup are extending their partnership to rid the world’s ocean of plastic pollution. Founded in 2013, The Ocean Cleanup’s mission is to develop and advance technologies to cleanup plastic pollution at sea and also stop the inflow via rivers. Over the last several years the company has been developing a large-scale system that essentially concentrates floating plastic for removal. The company then uses the plastic to create products that help raise funds for its efforts. It now employs a team of 95 engineers and researchers. In 2018, Maersk Supply Service signed on to help support the first deployment of the system The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the world’s largest accumulation zone of ocean plastics, some 1,200 miles off the coast of California. Later that year the AHTS Maersk Launcher towed the system from San Francisco. Although that first deployment revealed some issues with the system, engineers have worked to refine the system and also introduced “Interceptors”, which can be stationed at the mouths of rivers to prevent plastic pollution from entering the sea.