Think about what you were doing when you were 16 years old. Probably obsessing over guys at your school, worrying about your next world history exam, or complaining about the teacher that assigned a ton of homework over the weekend. When Boyan Slat was 16, he set his mind to solving one of the world's biggest problems - the gallons and gallons of litter being dumped into the ocean on a weekly basis.

A Netherlands native, Slat had always enjoyed building and making things. When he was 12, he once decided to launch 250 model rockets in the air for no reason other than to see what would happen. Now, he's setting his sights on cleaning up our seas. In 2013, Slat founded the The Ocean Cleanup, a project inspired by a trip to Greece. In a TEDx Talk with over 2.5 million views, Slat explained that his scuba diving experience was tainted by all the garbage in the water. Telling audiences that he "was expecting to see beautiful stuff underwater, but [he] saw more plastic bags than fish," he got to work hypothesizing how the seemingly impossible task could be undertaken. Cleaning up the ocean seems impossible for a reason; according to a National Geographic report, there's currently about 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic floating in oceans around the world. This garbage can have a hugely detrimental effect on wildlife, from animals strangling to death on torn plastic bags, to sea turtles dying after being caught in one of those plastic rings that soda comes in.

Then, Slat thought of a revolutionary idea: instead of chasing after individual ocean waves, why not create a stationary, netted barricade that lets the ocean's natural current flow through while catching foreign objects in a filtration system?

After presenting his idea in the aforementioned TEDx talk, his idea went viral, and he suddenly found himself being contacted by engineers, biologists, and supporters from all over the world. "I wasn't really prepared [for the viral moment]," said Slat in an interview with UpWorthy news. "Suddenly I received about 1,500 emails per day in my personal mailbox." Today, Slat has pulled together a team of experts, and the project is set to be launched in various locations around the world. In fact, on June 22, 2016, a prototype was launched in the North Sea. His project is set then to expand, and could potentially have a huge effect on our environment.

If you're interested in reading more about The Ocean Cleanup, specifics of the project, or are just curious about how you can get involved, check out Slat's website here.