The Princess of Girona Foundation International Award has been given to young Dutch researcher and successful creator of The Ocean Cleanup technology company, Boyan Slat (The Netherlands, 1994), whose candidature was proposed by the Embassy of Spain to The Hague.
Boyan Slat wins 2020 FPdGi International Award
The Princess of Girona Foundation (FPdGi) organizes every year the FPdGi Awards, to celebrate and recognize the personal and professional career of young individuals between 16 and 35 years old who stand out for their work, merits and exemplarity. The International Award is one of the five categories awarded and it recognizes the work done by young people from all over the world.
After finding more plastic than fish diving in Greece while in holidays, 16-year-old Boyan decided to devote his research project at high school to ocean plastic pollution. In 2013, still following this line of research, he created the company The Ocean Cleanup, which focuses on developing advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic.
The company has raised millions of dollars to continue with its research. By developing new designs, Boyan Slat estimates that half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch will be gone within 5 years, at minimal cost. The project has started with one system in mid-2018 from the bay of San Francisco and progressively will make use of additional systems until it achieves full-scale deployment by 2020.
