If you’re a certain age, you probably had a Cabbage Patch Kid growing up.

And if you know what those are, you’ve probably heard of their gooey, gross counterpart – the Garbage Patch Kids.

The patch of floating trash mucking up the Pacific Ocean is a fitting namesake of these disgusting and unruly 80’s kids, as it’s been growing unchecked now for a number of years.

This environmental cleanup group says they can definitely do something about it, though.

Ocean Cleanup says that they can eliminate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch entirely by the end of 2034 – if they can raise the necessary funds.

The press release estimates the cost to be around $7.5 billion.

The GPGP contains around 79,000 metric tons of plastic waste and takes up an area that’s twice the size of Texas.

Eliminating it means fishing the trash out piece-by-piece.

Founder and CEO of Ocean Cleanup Boyan Slat gave a statement on their plans.

“Today’s announcement is clear: clean oceans can be achieved in a manageable time and for a clear cost. Through the hard work of the past ten years, humanity has the tools needed to clean up the ocean.”

The patch is still growing, which makes estimating not only its size, but what it would take to clean it up, a little difficult.

Ocean Cleanup has been developing new technologies that could help, like System 03, a floating barrier around 1.4 miles long that is towed between two vessels.

They have fished a million pounds of plastic trash from the patch so far, which is a paltry 0.5% of the total.

If they had the money and the resources needed, they could obviously move much faster.

$7.5 billion seems like a lot at first, but it’s less than what Apple earns in profits every month, and just a sixth of Elon Musk’s annual bonus from Tesla.

American consumers spent $10.6 billion on Halloween decorations every year, and 1% of the net profits of the world’s plastic producers is $7.2 billion.

Slat says that if some of their technology comes to fruition, they could accomplish the task in something more like 5 years for a lower cost.

“We call upon the world to relegate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to the history books. This environmental catastrophe has been allowed to exist, unresolved, for too long, and for the first time, we can tell the world what it costs, what is needed, and how long it could take. The only thing standing between us and clean oceans is money.”

It seems like we could come together and make this happen.

It’s a concrete goal with real outcomes that could change actual lives.

Let’s do it.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.