In the world, floating plastic tends to accumulate in stable places called Oceanic Gyres. There are six gyres, and the largest of these is also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The idea presented here - that it is possible to use the most advanced waste management processes to promote interdisciplinary cooperation in which architectural, structural, environmental and thermodynamic aspects, suitably combined, would generate ecological units with a new political and social contents - suggests a provocative way of understanding the technical, cultural and social interactions that are the basis of a necessary practical reaction to the plastic problem. WaStop Floating Factory is a prototype for a floating platform that filters ocean water, recycles plastic and produces energy and hydrogen.

The project was developed within the context of the University of Florence.