At The Ocean Cleanup, developments are currently going fast. Did we report on the revamped ocean plastic catcher a fortnight ago, last weekend owner Boyan Slat presented an entirely new device targeting plastic in rivers: the Interceptor. The craft has already been tested in Malaysia, among other places.
The latest invention by The Ocean Cleanup, the Dutch non-profit organisation developing advanced technologies to rid the world's oceans of plastic, aims to prevent plastic from entering the oceans in the first place. The Interceptor™, in development by The Ocean Cleanup since 2015, is to attack plastic waste at its source: the world's vast network of rivers.
"To truly rid the oceans of plastic, we need to both clean up the legacy and turn off the tap to prevent more plastic from reaching the oceans in the first place," said Boyan Slat. "Combining our ocean cleaning technology with the Interceptor™, we now have solutions to address both sides of the equation."
Operational
The Interceptor™ is the first scalable solution to intercept plastic river pollution and can be deployed worldwide. It is capable of extracting 50,000 kg of waste per day - as much as 100,000 kg per day under optimal conditions.
Four Interceptors™ have been built so far; two systems are already operational in Jakarta (Indonesia) and Klang (Malaysia). A third system is in Vietnam and is being installed in Can Tho in the Mekong Delta (Vietnam), while the fourth is destined to be deployed in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic). In addition to these locations, Thailand has signed up to deploy an Interceptor™ near Bangkok. Agreements are also already in place for eem one in LA County (US), starting the scale-up process.
Day and night
During The Ocean Cleanup's research to map the problem, it was found that 1,000 of the world's 100,000 rivers (1%) are responsible for about 80 per cent of the waste entering the oceans. This is easy to see on this interactive map.
The Ocean Cleanup Interceptor™ is environmentally friendly and runs on 100% solar power. It has built-in lithium-ion batteries that allow it to operate day and night without making noise or emitting exhaust fumes. The system is anchored to the river bed to use the natural flow of the river to collect the plastic and is designed for 24/7 autonomous operation, eliminating the need for dangerous manual work. The floating barrier used to channel the waste into the system covers only part of the river; it does not interfere with other vessels and does not compromise safety. Nor does it interfere with the movement of wildlife. An internet-connected on-board computer monitors system performance, energy consumption and component status.
The Ocean Cleanup publicly presented these plans and unveiled the Interceptor™ 004 during a live streamed event in the Port of Rotterdam. In early October, The Ocean Cleanup announced that it had successfully captured and collected plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with its system 001/B, a cleanup system currently undergoing ongoing performance testing at sea.
Source: The Ocean Cleanup
