Joe Rogan Experience #1104 — Boyan Slat Transcript

Transcript

0:00 3, 2, 1, yes. Hello Boyan. Hi there. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks for doing this. I really appreciate it. And I love what you're doing. I've seen your TED talk. I've seen many numerous conferences that you've appeared at, what you've done is think long and hard and devise a method about this kid that's amazing i'm so happy there's people like you in the world.

1:25 these things were food. I think it's around $13 billion a year, according to the UN. And then thirdly, there's the health in the world than that. So I've been building my own thing since I was two years old, I think, And that question sort of kept circling around in my head. it's sort of day and night of a difference. So yeah, through testing and through all these prototypings, yeah, obviously there has been a lot of development there. But the key idea has

4:31 becomes very concentrated and once it's concentrated, well then it's easy to get it out and ship So we've done hundreds of scale model tests. But then also the plastic capturing, that worked very well in the lab. So there are five areas in the world where plastic concentrates. It's such a strange problem because it wasn't something that was discussed in the 80s or the 90s. It was nothing.

7:17 In 100 years, it will still be there. published a few weeks ago. We're America. We use Texas for everything. When did we realize that this was an issue, like collectively scientists, geologists? Yeah. and he saw this plastic and he was like, So he was sort of the canary in the coal mine. I guess, yeah, he just saw that stuff. So he was the sort of the canary in the coal mine?

9:30 what i really felt when i started the ocean cleanup was that basically everyone wanted this If somebody else would clean the ocean, that would be fine with us as well. That's a terrible thing. Someone has to. running to extract it out of the skies and i felt the same way about the pacific garbage patch and Now, is it possible to take that stuff, No, I'll do it in a bit.

12:49 So you're wearing sunglasses that are recycled from the ocean? So it's like the difference between a normal pebble and the piece of the Berlin Wall. Wow, that's awesome. So... to the ocean? Right. They're very cool. Yeah. I mean, even because it is in the commons of the ocean, international waters. there's like these salvage laws that say people would be very, very interested to buy

16:09 a normal pair or a pair coming out of the ocean, How long do you think it would be So eventually there will be almost double the size. just to make sure that it works well, That's amazing. if you put in more systems, of course. Yeah, just go to the website, theoceancleanup.com, and feel free to get in touch with us. That's plenty of space for logos.

19:09 That would be hilarious. So say an IKEA machine for furniture or a Tesla machine for cars. it's a benefit to get that plastic and make things out of it. sunglasses, right? So I think that really going all the way up to the value chain, of sort of the bioplastics, because you have something called bio-based, and you have something confused about it, let alone

22:22 when it, for example, enters the ocean, just does it feel different to the touch? So if you're going to make water bottles where you have a temperature of 100 degrees and pressure and things like that. Yeah, so that, of course, And from that biomass, Yeah, but on the other hand, I'm also not against plastic because I realize that without plastic, That's kind of ironic.

25:05 want to um i think it's really just about managing the material in a way that it doesn't end up But I don't think we can live without plastic. Yeah, it's called microplastics. So you've sort of these particles that look a bit almost like But on the other hand, it also means that there's still 99% of plastic out there So actually another finding of our study was that

28:30 because we had talked to someone that was explaining that every time they fish, Yeah, it's not legal, but... nets to shore. Yeah. And some sort of a penalization if they don't. What is this, So you can imagine if you are a turtle at the surface of this garbage patch So have we noticed that, have people been tested as well as these persistent organic pollutants,

32:03 But obviously, it's hard to say, well, how many percent of that is just... Is that correct? and then can attach to the plastic Yeah, well, if you leave it like in a hot car. actually, it collects more chemicals and we actually have to wash them out many percent of those legacy chemicals we would be pulling out with the plastic. But yeah, I mean, that we do agree with. So when you look at the past few hundred years of modernity in our

35:47 innovation, and being able to work together in an effective way, which is think about the But I think that instead of, there are some people that have sort of a more reactionary and then also apply that to the area of the environment. you know, trying to live without plastic or things like that, I think is going to be solved by, making an ax out of a piece of rock and living in the woods. I think that the solution is you know making an axe out of a piece of rock and living in the woods i just i think that the solution is trying to have a long-term comprehensive approach to how we use

39:06 like it's not good or bad. of deterministic so the inventor kind of puts a certain um direction in the product already So then I think we should now think about, well, what technologies can we develop to manage that We always think we do everything better over here. we don't want your waste anymore. So, yeah, I i mean very much depends on on the location but um to just use an example of um of where i live and back in holland uh so they um yeah they you actually uh they collect the plastic

42:31 Yeah, there's very little demand for recycled plastic. Yeah. unusual outliers like yourself you're a very humble guy i'm sure you don't think of yourself when you hear about people doing cool shit, Well, you were a baby. and just being open to feedback and just trying many different things and said, this is a horrible and raised a few million bucks

45:38 so just like we developed and once you get the ball rolling, you're extracting things that are potentially dangerous from the environment So it seems to me that this excitement that you're bringing is contagious. Like, yeah, a few of them I'm sort of so excited about And the goal is really to help ourselves out of business And then for me, it wouldn't be very exciting anymore.

48:52 hundreds of millions to build this You certainly won't be. One of the reasons why I'm asking this about you and what your ideas are is that they actually think about how to solve the problem. and then sort of reason your way back to, well, what's the first step that I need to take? No, I've read about other proposals from the past, for sure. that looked like some gigantic floating thing.

51:52 Like a silver sort of entry. So how about water pollution? Right, I know what you're saying, is I sort of write them down other ideas that you have, What I always like to do is I try to think, But I think it's a challenge that we'll have to solve. natural evolution from sort of wild hunting to farming to sort of this more um lab-grown stuff But yeah, but that seems to be sort of this natural evolution.

56:21 Yeah, possibly. It just seems to me like, Yeah. and then already you're kind of doing your emails who steps out off the median? road right not supposed to be staring down at your laptop yeah okay just erase everything i said for People plug into their Navigate. Yeah. Yeah. What's unbelievable is how few crashes there are. In terms of the way they're constructed?

1:00:22 They're literally going to be like lobbyists to stop laws. But they're very serious. It's going to be healthier, lower emissions. All these variables are going to come into play where people are going to say, no, the benefit of driving your own car is not worth the detriment to society. because that's sort of then really has to come into play. so his livelihood depends on talking about cars, and he's a real legitimate car nut.

1:02:43 Well, why is this? No, in Holland you don't really need cars. You just have But Holland is a very unique place, isn't it? and maritime engineers in the world. from such a small country. You got to take off soon, right? They do exist. Yeah. There's a few spots that suck. Actually, US is the number one group of supporters for us. So yeah, I think we've received a lot of support from the U.S.

1:07:08 But eventually, yeah, the idea is that this plastic business would be sort of a separate thing, but see you next year. maybe Plastacel. Maybe he'll do a buoyant version. But, yeah, I mean, environmentally conscious. There's a lot of Yeah I mean really it's just What do you feel you're going to be doing when this is done? Yeah, and then be a problem solver? Like that's your

1:10:03 when you think about a project like the ocean cleanup you're sure you're solving or you're So everything that other people cannot solve yard in a way that it's still big enough so we can assemble this 2,000 feet thing. Well, that's what's fascinating about a guy like you There was media, we had sponsors, and we had the university collaborating, Yeah, I mean, I don't think it would be very interesting

1:13:53 I think it's a comprehensive approach. Yeah, so it's theoceancleanup.com. Everything. Yay.