Photo: Ocean Cleanup
The Ocean Cleanup may be the world’s largest single effort to rid our oceans of plastic pollution. While there are obviously numerous projects around the world operated by different organizations, Boyan Slat’s endeavor includes tracking down and removing plastic from the ocean itself as well as stopping a great deal of trash flow at the source: rivers.
According to the non-profit organization, as much as 80 percent of the world’s river plastic flows through just 1,000 rivers. A quick Google search will tell you there are as many as 150,000 rivers around the globe, so concentrating its cleanup efforts at these waterways represents a textbook case of working smarter rather than harder. The organization designed an Interceptor system which can be engineered to each river’s unique layout and have installed a handful of them in locations around the world over the past couple of years.
“When you actually see all that trash together, that huge patch, and you think wow, that’s what was on our beaches? That’s what all the wildlife was playing in? It’s crazy,” says Danny Devaldenebro, a Los Angeles local living near System 007, which was installed near his Marina del Rey home in 2023. “I can’t believe we actually figured out something that can help this.”
System 006 was installed thousands of miles away in Rio Las Vacas, which is approximately 16 km north of Guatemala’s capital, Guatemala City. The interceptor system hinges on a set of two strategically located floating booms which capture plastic flowing through the river while water passes by. The booms are chained to foundations dug into the riverside, giving Interceptor 006 enough strength and stability to stop enormous quantities of trash throughout the rainy season. The system was put to the test after an April storm that caused flash floods in the area and eventually led to the system’s largest ever river catch.
A time lapse video of the whole operation in motion just weeks later shows a full month of trash flowing through the river before it’s stopped by Interceptor 006.
It’s mind blowing to see absolutely no water at certain points in the time lapse, and like Devaldenebro said back in California, it puts into perspective that all this trash would end up on beaches and in the ocean otherwise.
