Captain Diego Torres
Pacific Cleanup Fleet Commander
The Pacific Guardian doesn't look like much from a distance — a converted research vessel with two long booms extending from its bow like arms reaching into the sea. But what those arms pull from the water is staggering.
On a good day, the crew of 14 will extract 24 tons of marine plastic — bottles, fishing nets, microplastic-dense slurry — from the heart of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Since its deployment eight months ago, the Guardian has removed 2.1 million pounds of plastic from the open ocean.
"People think the Garbage Patch is an island," says Captain Torres, who has piloted cleanup vessels for TIDE for six years. "It's not. It's a soup. Particles spread across an area twice the size of Texas."
The real challenge isn't collection — it's what comes after. TIDE partners with six plastics recycling companies to convert extracted marine plastic into raw material for construction, textiles, and packaging. Last year, 340,000 pounds of TIDE-collected ocean plastic became decking boards, fleece jackets, and shipping containers.
"The ocean gave us plastic. We're giving it back," Torres says — and means it literally. The revenue from recycled plastic helps fund the next expedition.
