Dutch inventor, Boyan Slat is the founder of The Ocean Cleanup, a system that has focused on removing plastics from the world’s oceans. After a number of setbacks, earlier this month, Slat announced the 2,000-foot-long (600 meters) U-shaped “Ocean Cleanup Array” was working as he had envisioned.
The Ocean Cleanup has been taking heat from environmental groups for focusing on plastic waste in the oceans. Critics cite a study, Export of Plastic Debris by Rivers into the Sea, which was published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology on October 11, 2017.
The researchers found that worldwide, 10 rivers collectively dump anywhere from 0.47 million to 2.75 million metric tons of plastic into the seas every year, with the Yangtze alone dumping up to an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of plastic waste into the Yellow Sea annually.
Bottom line? Eight of the rivers are located in Asia: the Yangtze; Indus; Yellow; Hai He; Ganges; Pearl; Amur; Mekong; and two in Africa – the Nile and the Niger. Between the 10 rivers, they account for 90 percent of all the plastic waste in the world’s oceans.
Enter The Ocean Cleanup “Interceptor”
On Saturday, Slat unveiled the next step in his ongoing fight against plastic waste: A floating solar-powered device that he calls the “Interceptor” that scoops plastic out of rivers as it drifts past, according to the Associated Press.
“We need to close the tap, which means preventing more plastic from reaching the ocean in the first place,” he said, calling rivers “the arteries that carry the trash from land to sea.”
Three of the floating machines have already been deployed – The Interceptor is already collecting river plastic on Cengkareng Drain, Jakarta, and on the river Klang in Malaysia. A third is in Vietnam, with a fourth one heading to the Dominican Republic, he said.
The Interceptor is a totally solar-powered machine that has been designed to extract plastics autonomously and is capable of operating in the majority of the world’s most polluting rivers. So far, solutions to stop river plastic have been few and designed only for individual locations. But The Interceptor is revolutionary.
The solar-powered interceptors are strategically located in the river. Debris flows into the system, while boats are still able to pass. The floating barrier directs waste to the mouth of the Interceptor. Then, a conveyor belt extracts the debris from the water onto a giant shuttle. The system functions autonomously.
Using smart software, the shuttles know to distribute the plastic waste into six dumpsters located on a separate barge. Operators can remotely access the Interceptor’s dashboards from anywhere in the world – 24 hours a day. Once the Interceptor is full, it automatically sends a message to local operators.
The barge is brought back to shore, emptied for recycling, and reattached for further collection. In a fully operational state, the Interceptor can remove up to 100,000 kilograms (220,500 pounds) of plastics each day.
