Solar-Powered Boats Will Wipe Away 2.4 Mil Tons Of River Waste

Today, plastic is threatening the underwater ecosystems, from plastic rings choking turtles to plastic gathering in spots and damaging the marine habitat. In short, plastic is really causing damage to the environment. You might think that most of the plastic waste is in the sea because of the people visiting beaches. But actually, there are 2.4 mil metric tons of river waste.

And people are making efforts in tackling this problem. A company called The Ocean Cleanup has created some kind of barge running on the rivers and collecting plastic waste.

Called “Interceptor,” the badge looks really cool. It is set up on the riverbed but is far from the normal routes where boats pass through. There is a large barrier to block and trap all floating plastic pieces.

The plastic pieces are captured and stored in containers. The containers full of river waste are then sent for waste management or recycling. If the interceptor somehow misses some pieces of plastic waste, there is another interceptor which is placed in the opposite direction to trap them.

And the cooler thing about these special boats is that they don’t need fuel for operation. There are solar panels powering the whole mechanism.

Nick Mallos, the Trash Free Seas program’s senior director said:

>>> Scientists Found A Way To Break Down Plastic Using Artificial Sunlight