We all know our oceans are choking with plastic pollution.?And you'd be surprised to know that most of the plastic flowing into oceans originates in our rivers, which obviously needs to be stopped.
The Ocean Cleanup -- a company that had created a system to clean plastic from the ocean -- has now created a system to clean the rivers, with the Interceptor.
The Ocean Cleanup/ Reuters
On average, 2.4 million metric tons of plastic flows through the rivers,?most of it coming from the cities and villages it passes by.
The system is installed to the riverbed, away from the passing boats. The system consists of a large barrier that blocks floating plastic pieces in the river. As any plastic pieces pass through it, it captures it and sends it for waste management.?
There's another system that's installed to collect trash missed by the first one.? This then gets placed on a sort of conveyor belt that then distributes the trash into separate dumpsters, autonomously while notifying local operators to take it to the recycler when its full.
The system is powered with the help of solar energy and can easily collect half a ton of plastic trash in a day (obviously dependent on river flow, tides and the amount of waste present in the river).
The Ocean Cleanup
?Nick Mallos, senior director of the Trash Free Seas program at the environmental nonprofit The Ocean Conservancy says, "When we think about solutions, we obviously need to think holistically. First and foremost, we need to move all the way upstream and reduce consumption and production of single-use, unnecessary plastics, and we need to better collect and recycle plastics and ensure materials are getting back into the supply chain for a circular economy. But then for the materials that are still escaping and currently not making their way in that system, the last line of defence is cleanup."?
He also suggests that instead of relying on an ocean cleaning system, cleaning up beaches or rivers can help drastically.