Ocean cleanup group deploys barges to capture plastic in rivers

Interceptor 007 is a not-so-secret agent of trash collection at the mouth of a Los Angeles waterway. It's one of several barges belonging to The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch nonprofit founded by 29-year-old Boyan Slat.

"It's like a vacuum cleaner for the river," Slat said.

The Ocean Cleanup is on a mission to collect 90% of floating plastic pollution, including cleaning up the Great Pacific garbage patch, a collection of plastic debris and trash twice the size of Texas. The group is now focusing on rivers because its research shows that 80% of all plastic flowing into the ocean comes from just 1% of the world's rivers.

"So if we tackle that 1% of rivers, we think we can have a tremendous impact in a relatively short amount of time," Slat told CBS News.

He's deployed 11 trash interceptors, which can cost up to $650,000, on rivers around the world, and plans to add hundreds more. On a Guatemala river that looks more like a landfill, the device collected 2.5 million pounds of trash in just three weeks.