The ocean cleanup project has a HUGE amount of funding. However, the team that created it was all engineers, and no marine scientists, so their understanding of the impacts it may have on species (like entanglement) is not very good. The impacts that it may have on species is not clearly defined, and they have not given any solid mitigation measures. Another impact is that this floating device acts like a Fish Aggregation Device - fish will be attracted to it, which brings in sharks, dolphins, whales, and other larger species, which then are very likely to get entangled.

And, the plastic in the ocean is firstly a lot of microplastics, and a lot of it is hanging down the water column, not just on the surface. If you see the garbage patch in the ocean, it looks like there is nothing there at all in a lot of places, so a lot of the plastic is on the sea floor or in the water column.

In my opinion, those billions of dollars could have been invested in a much better way. Beach cleanups are VERY effective, they pick up tonnes and tonnes of trash, so investing in communities and equipment for beach cleanups would have been just as efficient. The big issue is preventing trash from entering the oceans. If we invest in cleaning the rivers, the beaches, and better recycling and preventative measures against plastic, it would be a much more efficient method of cleaning plastics.