# Boyan Slat on Reddit (u/TheOceanCleanupBoyan)

Part of Founders and CEOs on Reddit, researched with Autumn (https://www.autumn.ai) from public sources. Updated 2026-11-07. Interactive version: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/founders-on-reddit/boyan-slat

Boyan Slat: Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup.

- Reddit account: [u/TheOceanCleanupBoyan](https://www.reddit.com/user/TheOceanCleanupBoyan/) (AMA only)
- How we know it's theirs: [His 2024 r/IAmA AMA, posted from this account](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1fj43pm/)
- Where they post, in the records we retrieved: r/IAmA (14)
- Known activity in the posts we found: 2024 to 2024
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyan_Slat

## Moments

### u/TheOceanCleanupBoyan in r/IAmA, Sep 18, 2024 · Funny

Replying to a redditor:

> What would you say to Mr. Trashwheel of Baltimore, USA?

> I generally don't engage in conversations with inanimate objects.
>
> PS Much appreciate the pioneering role they played and every river other people are tacking is a win for the planet!

Full thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1fj43pm/im_boyan_slat_the_founder_and_ceo_of_the_ocean/lnr45jq/ · 6 points as of Nov 7, 2026

### u/TheOceanCleanupBoyan in r/IAmA, Sep 18, 2024 · Behind the scenes

Replying to a redditor:

> Hello Boyan, fellow Dutch engineer here. Is the 7.5B a figure with margins or can we expect the usual (referring to huge projects in general) cost overruns? Im not asking to be snide! 7.5B sounds like a bargain on a problem this scale. I ask because in the video you present a…

> Good question! Currently reading "How Big Things Get Done" by Bent Flyvbjerg which includes the amazing stat that historically just 0.5% of megaprojects have been delivered on time/quality/budget which is totally insane.
>
> With our cost calculations we produced high and low scenarios and the numbers we shared are the average of those scenarios, based on the performance we've achieved today. As shared during the press conf last week, the key way we're working on robustly getting the cost to the lower end of the range is by adding 'hotspot hunting' to the operation. Doing so should get us to the \~4B mark.
>
> The nice thing about the cleanup operation is that it's modular. It's just copy-pasting the current system. The cost projections are an extrapolation of operating 1 system. Historically, doing one-off projects are the ones sensitive to cost overruns (e.g. nuclear power plants) while modular activities see the opposite: a learning curve.

Full thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1fj43pm/im_boyan_slat_the_founder_and_ceo_of_the_ocean/lnr0s5t/ · 12 points as of Nov 7, 2026