Boyan Slat, founder of The Ocean Cleanup

I have always been interested in engineering and technology, I have always entertained myself thinking about solving problems. I was 16 years old and it struck me that I was coming across more plastic in the ocean than fish. These types of problems are the major challenges of our generation.

When I was 5 I was obsessed with Lego. A lot of science experiments. I was a geek growing up, I still am. I have always thought about things a little differently. Teachers would always complain, saying I would never stick to an assignment.

I was doing a high school science project and decided to use this time to study the problem. Like everyone else I originally was thinking about nets, but I quickly realised this wouldn’t be feasible. The violence and size of the ocean, and the associated cost and by-catch meant it wouldn’t work. I was in the Azores, in a restaurant on the terrace and came up with the idea of harnessing the ocean’s power to collect the plastic. Hey presto.

I couldn’t stop thinking of the project and by this time I was at Delft University of Technology. I started talking to professors and industry experts, and came up with 50 questions that I needed to answer for this to become feasible. The process was ridiculously slow. I then decided to put my studies on hold, as well as socialising. I put everything into it, gave myself half a year and put all my 300 pocket money euros into it.

Originally only two people offered help, but after the TED talk went viral I was getting about 1,500 emails a day, with people offering their help. This enabled the crowd-funding and team to be assembled which grew to 100 people. We then proved our feasibility.

I wasn’t surprised at the criticism. Many people have been working on this topic for years. Suddenly an 18 year old says I can clean the ocean. I understand. How did I deal with it? I decided not to respond at first. It was just an idea a year ago, so the only appropriate response would be a 530-page feasibility report that shows it is actually feasible. We have now published the report.

We have proven that the plastic can be turned into oil — three independent companies have confirmed this. Another option is mechanical recycling; we have also shown it’s suitable for injection moulding so we can make anything out of it. The quality is much better than expected.

There are no islands of plastic as some people think. It’s very dispersed. The scale is huge though. 95 per cent of the plastic is quite large — all the way up to parts of boats, jerry cans, nets.

All entrepreneurs want to be in a position of going from controlling it all, to where it controls itself somewhat. Sometimes it’s difficult, but you learn. Personally I really like being involved in the engineering process, so I put a lot of my time aside to work on the research and development side of things.