Two jobs, not one

Most ocean plastic arrives through rivers — catch it there, and clean the big floating patches separately.

Close the tap (stop river trash before it becomes ocean plastic) and empty the bathtub (remove floating plastic already in accumulation zones). Those are two jobs on one pollution pathway.

Scale ambition is not the same as finished cleanup. Organization materials talk about fleets of river systems, city programs aimed at cutting a large share of river plastic flow by 2030, and long-term floating-plastic goals. Treat those as plans and self-reports — not completed outcomes.

If you can say the one idea in a hallway without jargon, you understand the week.