Could a teenager save the world's oceans? Student, 19, claims his invention could clean up the seas in just five years

      
Boyan Slat, 19, came up with the idea of a series of floating booms and processing platforms (pictured) designed to collect floating plastic rubbish
The 'ocean cleanup' concept is designed to capture the floating plastic but allow life like plankton to pass through unharmed, while saving the waste materials to be recycled. The design is self-sufficient and saves energy by being tethered to the sea bed (pictured)

A Dutch teenager has invented a device that he claims could clean up some 20 billion tonnes of plastic waste from the world's oceans.

Boyan Slat, 19, came up with the idea of a series of floating booms and processing platforms designed to collect floating plastic rubbish.

The 'ocean cleanup' concept is designed to capture the floating plastic but allow life like fish and plankton to pass through unharmed, while saving the waste materials to be recycled.

The engineering student believes that once operational, his device could dramatically reduce the amount of rubbish in the oceans in just five years time.

Millions of tonnes of plastic debris are littering oceans and have accumulated in areas of high concentration called gyres - which are essentially floating rubbish tips.