Alright so for about two months I set up and ran a model assuming how much plastic is entering the Gulf of Mexico (I understand this is a different location, however the data is easier to run with a well known system so I assumed the project could be completed here as well) based on a relative ratio between the amount of plastic used within the Mississippi River Basin and how much is currently leaving the rivers and entering the Gulf. I'm really simplifying it by saying this, but using their numbers on an expected cleanup rate except now assuming they could do this to the Gulf of Mexico, their project would need to be multiplied by over 100x to get even half of the plastic cleaned up in the Gulf in the next 50 years.

I really do not believe they are incorporating the rate of addition of plastic into the oceans in their calculations, and are instead just using the current amount. From any calculations I could make with my model they aren't even close to matching the rate of addition into a smaller system (the Gulf). The project sounds really cool, but I don't believe it will work.

Source: Environmental Scientist