The Interceptor Dutch inventor Boyan Slat founded The Ocean C | Tech for Good

The Interceptor

Dutch inventor Boyan Slat founded The Ocean Cleanup at 18 in his hometown of Delft, the Netherlands. The company's mission is to solve the oceans' plastic problem by doing two things - halt the trash entering from rivers and remove the existing plastics from the oceans.

Today, we are talking about capturing plastic from rivers, the primary source of ocean pollution. The company's research shows that about 1000 rivers (1% of all rivers on the planet) are responsible for 80 percent of global ocean plastic pollution. The Ocean Cleanup's Interceptor is an autonomous, 100% solar-powered catamaran diverting plastic from rivers and preventing it from entering the ocean.

Water passes through the center of the catamaran, moving plastic onto a netted conveyer belt. Water filters through and back into the river, and plastic goes from the conveyer belt into the shuttle. The shuttle automatically sorts the waste into six onboard dumpsters with a total capacity of 50 cubic meters each.

Interceptor works without any human operator, collecting up to 100 tons of waste per day. Once the dumpsters are nearly at capacity, operators receive an automated text message, collect the barge with dumpsters, empty them, and return the barge to the Interceptor to continue picking up debris.

The company has already built four Interceptors, two for Jakarta, Indonesia, and Klang, Malaysia. The other two will be installed in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Plus, two are in the works to be installed in rivers in Bangkok, Thailand, and Los Angeles.

#recycle #plastics #ocean #solar