SeeElefant 2024
21. October 2020 2024-01-28 11:12SeeElefant 2024
SeeElefant 2024
Since 2022, the concept has been extensively revised, expanded and detailed. Under the title “SeeElefant 2023”, the so-called “initial design” was completed in 02/2023 with a team of specialists in plant engineering and shipbuilding.
The process ship – a bulk carrier with 4 cranes – is now planned with 180 m, the capacity is designed for 60,000 tons/year and in addition to the maritime plastic waste, a large amount of land-based waste is processed, which is brought on board via a transfer terminal.
The expansion of capacities goes hand in hand with an increase in economies of scale in operations.









The plastic waste is separated by type via the LVP sorting system integrated in the hold, pressed into plastic bales and fed into the recycling system on land. A waste-to-energy plant, which meets the highest international emission standards with sophisticated filter technology, generates electrical energy from the thermally recyclable sorting residues, most of which can be sold and fed into the respective shore power grid.
A large research hall on deck offers space and possibilities for further plastic and waste analyses as well as processing tests such as waste-to-fuel technology.
The OEOO team is currently putting together the future stakeholder network for investment, financing, management and operation. At the same time, the market is being closely monitored with a view to acquiring a suitable ship in the short term.
The aim is to commission a German shipyard with the conversion of the bulker by the end of 2023 in order to go into trial operation in the North Sea or Baltic Sea from mid-2025 and anchor in a metropolis in Southeast Asia from 2026 in order to strengthen the local waste disposal infrastructure and reduce marine litter.

Downloads & additional material
- Project: SeeElefant – Feasibility study (DE)
- NDR Beitrag – SeeElefant concept / “One Earth One Ocean” association wants to fish waste out of the sea
- Technical data (Outspec) SeeElefant 2023 (EN)
- Presentation SeeElefant 2023 (DE)
- Project: SeeElefant – Feasibility study (DE)
- Article: Recycling Magazine Summer 2023 (EN)
- Flyer SeeElefant – Maritime plastic recycling
