This seems very much like a variant of oil booms ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom_%28containment%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom_%28containment%29 ) w

This seems very much like a variant of oil booms ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom_%28containment%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom_%28containment%29 ) which have been field tested for years in oil spills to pretty good effect. Something like this, which is mostly passive, if it collects 90% of the plastic will still cut out a significant amount of pollution from the ocean. We can worry about the other 10% with another pass, or further developments.