Dutch NGO, The Ocean Cleanup, has launched ‘The Interceptor’, a solar powered system that collects plastic waste from rivers before it reaches the sea. According to their research, 80 per cent of the rubbish in the oceans come from just 1 per cent of the world’s rivers.
The Interceptor promises to collect 50,000 kgs of plastic each day. It consists of a floating barrier attached to a processing plant that resembles a barge and is anchored to the river bed. The barrier funnels plastic waste into the mouth of the plant. A conveyor belt separates the waste from the water and moves it up to a shuttle, which automatically dumps it into containers on a separate barge. When the containers are full, an onboard computer system alerts a local partner to tow the barge of plastic waste away for recycling.
The device is currently being tested in Indonesia and Malaysia, with plans to tackle the 1,000 most polluting rivers in the world by 2025.
“We need to close the tap, which means preventing more plastic from reaching the ocean in the first place,” said TOC’s 25-year-old founder, Boyan Slat, calling rivers “the arteries that carry the trash from land to sea.”
Picture Credit : Google
