Rivers are the main contributing source of plastic waste in our oceans and The Great Ocean CleanUp believe that 1,000 of our rivers contribute 80 percent of all waste and around 30,000 other rivers deliver the rest. The Great Ocean CleanUp has built an interactive map, which we encourage you to share, as it shows the source of pollution from rivers. Size and colour depicts contribution, with red claiming the rivers of the top 1,000.
This week in Rotterdam, Boyan Slat announced the deployment of a secret 4 year project to clean up river plastic. Called The Interceptor, two are already working in Klang River, Malaysia and in Jakarta, Indonesia. The floating plastic chompers are a scalable project designed for mass production, to tackle plastic pollution in the major polluting rivers, before it heads to sea.
The Interceptors are autonomous, solar powered catamarans with a conveyor belt in the middle which scoops up trash and deposits it into on-board dumpsters. Once the dumpsters are full, local operators are automatically notified to come collect the rubbish.
The team are now working with different governments on the specific needs of local rivers - current velocity, width of the river to allow for other vessel traffic and proximity to the ocean mouth.
If you are an authority or someone interested in The Interceptor, the detailed specifications, along with contact details have been published.