The Ocean Cleanup heads for the Pacific

The Ocean Cleanup launches its first cleanup system towed by the vessel Maersk Launcher, from San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Sept . 8, 2018. The cleanup System 001, created by Dutch environmental activist and innovator Boyan Slat, is a 2,000 feet long floater which was assembled in Alameda, and will start collecting plastic in the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
The Ocean Cleanup launches its first cleanup system towed by the vessel Maersk Launcher, from San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Sept . 8, 2018. The cleanup System 001, created by Dutch environmental activist and innovator Boyan Slat, is a 2,000 feet long floater which was assembled in Alameda, and will start collecting plastic in the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
The Ocean Cleanup launches its first cleanup system towed by the vessel Maersk Launcher, from San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Sept . 8, 2018. The cleanup System 001, created by Dutch environmental activist and innovator Boyan Slat, is a 2,000 feet long floater which was assembled in Alameda, and will start collecting plastic in the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
The Ocean Cleanup launches its first cleanup system towed by the vessel Maersk Launcher, from San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Sept . 8, 2018. The cleanup System 001, created by Dutch environmental activist and innovator Boyan Slat, is a 2,000 feet long floater which was assembled in Alameda, and will start collecting plastic in the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Dutch environmental activist and innovator Boyan Slat looks at his cleanup system project towed by the vessel Maersk Launcher, far back, during its launch by The Ocean Cleanup from San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Sept . 8, 2018. The cleanup System 001, is a 2,000 feet long floater which was assembled in Alameda, and will start collecting plastic in the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
The Ocean Cleanup launches its first cleanup system towed by the vessel Maersk Launcher, from San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Sept . 8, 2018. The cleanup System 001, created by Dutch environmental activist and innovator Boyan Slat, is a 2,000 feet long floater which was assembled in Alameda, and will start collecting plastic in the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
The Ocean Cleanup launches its first cleanup system towed by the vessel Maersk Launcher, from San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Sept . 8, 2018. The cleanup System 001, created by Dutch environmental activist and innovator Boyan Slat, is a 2,000 feet long floater which was assembled in Alameda, and will start collecting plastic in the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
The Ocean Cleanup System 001 is towed by the vessel Maersk Launcher, center, during the launch of its first cleanup system as it navigates past the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Sept . 8, 2018. The cleanup System 001, created by Dutch environmental activist and innovator Boyan Slat, is a 2,000 feet long floater which was assembled in Alameda, and will start collecting plastic in the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

By Anda Chu | Bay Area News Group

PUBLISHED: September 8, 2018 at 4:56 p.m. | UPDATED: September 8, 2018 at 5:02 p.m.

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It’s launching time for The Ocean Cleanup, the ambitious effort to collect the massive vortex of plastic drifting in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii.

A nonprofit from the Netherlands, The Ocean Cleanup will use a floater attached to a screen under the water, which if all goes according to plan will concentrate the debris and allow it to be gathered and recycled.

Garbage the screens are expected to scoop up plastic bottles, bottle caps, bits and pieces of plastic containers — anything that may float or just be under the surface.

The system was towed from Alameda, where it has been assembled, through San Francisco Bay and under the Golden Gate Bridge on Saturday, Sept .8, 2018.