SLIEDRECHT – Van der Leun, a Dutch maritime technology specialist, has built the first Interceptor, a boat that collects plastic waste from rivers. It built the vessel for Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch non-profit that is developing technologies to rid the oceans of plastic garbage. In late February, it harvested its first crop of plastic ocean waste.
The Interceptor runs 100% on solar energy. It has a conveyor belt that collects waste preventing it from reaching oceans. It can hold up to 50 cubic meters (1,765 cubic ft) of refuse and when almost full, the vessel automatically sends an SMS to local operators to collect it.
In recent months, a Van der Leun team was in Vietnam to oversee the installation of the Interceptor’s electrical system.
The river waste initiative is a derivative project of The Ocean Cleanup NGO that is at work in the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch,’ the world’s largest ocean plastics assembly zone, between Hawaii and California.
The Interceptor is Ocean Cleanup’s first scalable solution to efficiently take plastic from rivers. By tackling 1,000 rivers worldwide, we aim to halt 80% of plastic from entering the oceans in five years from the rollout, says the NGO.
Its first floating net system in the Pacific Ocean was launched in 2018. To fix waste retention and structural issues, Ocean Cleanup launched its System 001/B in 2019.
Some of the plastic that the NGO has collected to date, has been turned into sunglasses that are sold through its website to help raise funds.
www.theoceancleanup.com / www.vanderleun.nl
