Launch Of 'Trash Wheel' In Panama Is A Milestone In The Global Fight To Stop Plastic Pollution
Friday, 23 September 2022, 6:36 am
Panama City (September 22, 2022) – A giant semiautonomous trash interceptor powered by flowing water and sunlight started eating plastic today on the Juan Díaz River in Panama City, Panama. It is the most ambitious attempt yet to rescue a long-contaminated waterway from the curse of being a floating landfill, and a step forward in a broader campaign to remove plastic from waterways in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, and then analyze it so that the root source of the pollution can be addressed.
The machine, a "trash wheel" affectionately nicknamed Wanda Díaz, is a project of the environmental group Marea Verde, one of eight members of the Clean Currents Coalition, a worldwide effort to subdue the plague of ocean plastics, partly by capturing and removing plastics at their source—polluted rivers. The Clean Currents Coalition members are located in Panama, Mexico, Jamaica, Ecuador, Kenya, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.
Worldwide, the Clean Currents Coalition projects have reached the following milestones:
1,808,526 lbs (820,334 kg) of plastic waste captured from rivers and diverted from the ocean. 78,466 people engaged in local communities through 335 outreach and educational events. 82% of captured plastic recycled or repurposed: 40% PET (soda and water bottles, shampoo bottles, etc.) 23% HDPE (toys, food containers, trash bins, etc.) 12% PP (containers, toys, car parts, etc.1,808,526 lbs (820,334 kg) of plastic waste captured from rivers and diverted from the ocean.)
"There's a living river under all that trash, or there could be," said Douglas McCauley, Director of the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which advises the Clean Currents Coalition. "The waters of the Juan Díaz once nourished the local community, the nearby mangroves, and the Pacific Ocean. We'll never restore rivers like this to health unless we can start to get the plastic out—and keep it out. And rescuing rivers from plastic is the key to rescuing the oceans."
Trash wheels are relatively new inventions that use booms, conveyor belts, and solar panels to sweep floating plastic out of the water for repurposing, recycling or incineration. A similar machine, Mr. Trash Wheel in Baltimore, has been clearing tons of trash from that city's Inner Harbor since 2014.
More:
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO2209/S00199/launch-of-trash-wheel-in-panama-is-a-milestone-in-the-global-fight-to-stop-plastic-pollution.htm
Nom nom nom.
Yay! Mr. Trash Wheel in Baltimore!
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