'Ocean Cleanup' Project Unveils New Solar-Powered Robot That Collects Plastic From Rivers (fastcompany.com) 27
Today the Ocean Cleanup unveiled its new "Interceptor" solar-powered robot to collect waste plastic from rivers before it can enter the ocean, Fast Company reports:
The system was designed by the nonprofit The Ocean Cleanup, which spent the past four years secretly developing and testing the technology while it continued to work on its main project -- a device that can capture plastic trash once it's already in the ocean. The nonprofit unveiled the Interceptor at an event in Rotterdam today.
The ocean's plastic trash problem often starts in rivers: Every year, as much as 2.4 million metric tons of plastic flows from rivers to the sea, the nonprofit estimates. Most of that trash comes from rivers in Asia, in cities where recycling infrastructure is often inadequate. Around 1% of the world's rivers, or 1,000 rivers in total, are responsible for the majority of the trash entering the ocean...
The new technology is designed to anchor to a riverbed, out of the path of passing boats. Like the system that the nonprofit designed for the ocean, which uses a large barrier that blocks part of the river to collect plastic as it floats by, the Interceptor has a floating barrier that directs trash into the system. The device is positioned where the greatest amount of plastic flows, and another device can be placed farther down the river to catch trash that might escape the first Interceptor. A conveyor belt pulls the trash out of the water, and an autonomous system distributes it into dumpsters on a separate barge, sending an alert to local operators when the system is full and ready to be taken to a recycler. The system runs on solar power. In a typical day, it might extract as much as 50,000 kilograms of trash; depending on the currents, tides, and how much plastic is in a given river, The Ocean Cleanup estimates it could theoretically collect as much as 100,000 kilograms [220,462 pounds]...
Since it runs autonomously, it needs little human interaction and also doesn't require humans to sort through potentially dangerous debris collected from the water. It's designed to be mass-produced. The nonprofit aims to deploy it into all of the most polluting rivers in the next five years... "We project that we can remove 90% of floating ocean plastic by 2040, and to truly rid the world's oceans of plastic we must do two things: cleanup legacy plastic and stop it from entering the ocean," they wrote in a press release. "Both are necessary to achieve this mission..."
The ocean's plastic trash problem often starts in rivers: Every year, as much as 2.4 million metric tons of plastic flows from rivers to the sea, the nonprofit estimates. Most of that trash comes from rivers in Asia, in cities where recycling infrastructure is often inadequate. Around 1% of the world's rivers, or 1,000 rivers in total, are responsible for the majority of the trash entering the ocean...
The new technology is designed to anchor to a riverbed, out of the path of passing boats. Like the system that the nonprofit designed for the ocean, which uses a large barrier that blocks part of the river to collect plastic as it floats by, the Interceptor has a floating barrier that directs trash into the system. The device is positioned where the greatest amount of plastic flows, and another device can be placed farther down the river to catch trash that might escape the first Interceptor. A conveyor belt pulls the trash out of the water, and an autonomous system distributes it into dumpsters on a separate barge, sending an alert to local operators when the system is full and ready to be taken to a recycler. The system runs on solar power. In a typical day, it might extract as much as 50,000 kilograms of trash; depending on the currents, tides, and how much plastic is in a given river, The Ocean Cleanup estimates it could theoretically collect as much as 100,000 kilograms [220,462 pounds]...
Since it runs autonomously, it needs little human interaction and also doesn't require humans to sort through potentially dangerous debris collected from the water. It's designed to be mass-produced. The nonprofit aims to deploy it into all of the most polluting rivers in the next five years... "We project that we can remove 90% of floating ocean plastic by 2040, and to truly rid the world's oceans of plastic we must do two things: cleanup legacy plastic and stop it from entering the ocean," they wrote in a press release. "Both are necessary to achieve this mission..."
Half truth (Score:3, Informative)
” Most of that trash comes from rivers in Asia, in cities where recycling infrastructure is often inadequate.”
Well, there’s also the issue that we first world countries have largely outsourced our “recycling” to those Asian countries, where the materials we send them often end up just being dumped as garbage after being stripped of the small number of valuable components they contain.
That’s on us - not them.
Re:Half truth (Score:4, Interesting)
Here's an example in Guatemala [youtube.com]. If you look at the contents, they seem mostly like post-consumer waste, but it's reasonable to assume corporations are polluting, too.
It can be turned around, though. For example, 20 years ago Taiwan had horribly polluted rivers and garbage problems, but now it's mostly cleaned up.
Re: (Score:3)
Thatâ(TM)s on us - not them.
Why is this on us and not them? Why is nothing ever China or Asias fault? We ether pay them or they buy our trash. Once that transaction is complete then it is their responsibility to dispose of it properly.
because results matter (Score:1)
that's why.
Re: (Score:2)
Why is this on us and not them? Why is nothing ever China or Asias fault?
No way to take advantage in that case. No way to get money someone else earned. No way to leverage it for power over others' lives.
No opportunity to be nasty to Americans. No way to talk down the idea of America or undermine the spirit of the people here. No way to get back at [the wrong kind of] people. It does not grind that axe of resentment. Nor does it stoke those fires of anger.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Why is this on us and not them? Why is nothing ever China or Asias fault? We ether pay them or they buy our trash. Once that transaction is complete then it is their responsibility to dispose of it properly.
If an eBay seller sells me some crap, they don't get to tell me to go fuck myself, or that I have to take it back to the manufacturer in China. If they do that I just complain to eBay, and I get a refund. So far, 100% of the time. If we know China isn't properly disposing of recyclables, and we send them there anyway, then that's on us. If we know China pollutes when they make the crap that we buy, then that's on us.
Sure, the blame is shared, but we have the power to stop it from happening by changing our h
Re: (Score:1)
Developing countries can do all this type of pollution by themselves fine. If you see documentaries / read about this problem, it's mostly litter & regular household waste. Which finds its way into waterways, from smaller to bigger streams to rivers and into the ocean.
Reasons are multiple: people simply not caring, not appreciating the value of unpolluted waterways, lack of trash collection infrastructure, businesses dumping garbage unchecked because environmental laws are not enforced, etc etc. Typi
Re: (Score:2)
I'll echo everything Alwin said. In the US and Europe, over 98% of garbage ends up in properly run landfills. In China that number is closer to 40-60%, depending.
China is already addressing the issue of recycling by heavily restricting the import of recyclables. They are doing this to force their recycling businesses to develop an internal mechanism for collecting recyclables. They want that 60% of waste that is getting tossed in a ditch to get picked up and sold to a plastic recycling center.
So, just
Blatant copy of Mr Trash Wheel (Score:2)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:1)
Yes, that's what I though reading this. Nothing new here. Good idea to deploy more of these machines, yes, but the technology has been proven for years in Baltimore's trio of trash wheels, Mr. Trash Wheel, Professor Trash Wheel, and Captain Trash Wheel, pulling millions of pound of trash out of the harbor the past few years.
inadequate recycling infrastructure (Score:2)
What happens next? (Score:2)
First of all, if "Most of that trash comes from rivers in Asia", I don't want to hear another word about how America is f*cking up the environment.
Secondly, what happens after this robot scoops up all that Asian plastic? This robot is all well and good but anyone proposing a solution to an environmental problem can't get off by only solving part of the problem. In this case, they have to do something other than dumping it in a landfill. Although, technically, this could be considered long-term storage un
Re: What happens next? (Score:1)
Well according to one of the above commenters Asiaâ(TM)s trash is from or because of us. Also Asia has like 5 to 10 times our population (depending on what you consider Asia). I donâ(TM)t think we are completely absolved, furthermore just because somebody else is dumping more trash than you it doesn't mean its cool to do it. Two wrongs donâ(TM)t make a right.
Re: (Score:2)
That's just wrong. The trash in the Pacific is not American post-consumer trash. It is Chinese consumer trash... .they don't have the sanitation systems we do. This has been widely covered in environmental publications studying the problem, and those studies have trickled into the scientific press. All the nerds here should be relatively aware of that.
Western recyclables don't even go to China any more. They banned the import of the stuff to force their recycling companies to develop a domestic supply
Most murders happen in big cities! (Score:1)
so I don't wanna hear about a few murders I did in the country! by gosh it! o0oooh I maaad.
Re: (Score:2)
Why would they have to do something other than dump it in a landfill? Why is that a hard requirement?
In big cities in China it is not uncommon for stuff to be dropped in a ditch or dumped in a local ravine. They just don't have the sanitation infrastructure we have here. That's the stuff that is ending up in the Pacific.
Why in the world would you issue such a silly edict? "Sure, you might be allowed to pick up that garbage before it gets in the ocean.... But don't you dare throw it in a landfill!!!"
A l
What else does it inadvertently remove? (Score:2)
So - we have a weir of some kind, with a conveyor belt going to a pile a trash. What happens when a fish shows up at this? Or frogs, water bugs etc. etc.?
Re: (Score:2)
Nothing. It just collects stuff from the surface of the water. Have them for years and they work fine here in the US
About that solar power... (Score:2)
Does this actually have the 60+ square meters of solar panels on that would be needed just to lift the 50,000 pounds of trash out of the river? Please note that I'm all in favor of this thing - just trying to understand the numbers behind it.
Re: (Score:2)
No, it probably mostly runs off the water flow of the river itself. The solar power is just backup. It only needs to run the conveyor belt. There are a few deployments of similar machines elsewhere. Not sure why this is news, but I guess they are looking for money.