Nonprofit environmental organization the Ocean Cleanup is now tackling the problem of plastic pollution in oceans by collecting plastic waste directly from rivers before it gets to the oceans.
Its new system, dubbed "The Interceptor", is the organization's latest effort to try and rid our oceans of plastic.
It is powered by solar energy and uses lithium-ion batteries, which enables it to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The large contraption anchors itself to the riverbed and uses a floating barrier that guides plastic waste from the river into the system's conveyor belt.
Once plastic waste is onboard, it is automatically put into one of six dumpsters on a barge inside the system. The system alerts local operators once all six dumpsters onboard are full.
Local operators then send over a vessel to pick up the plastic waste so that the Interceptor can continue to remove plastic.
The barge is taken back to shore with the plastic waste and emptied for recycling. The barge is then reattached to the Interceptor to collect more plastic debris.
Ocean Cleanup claims that the system is capable of extracting 50,000 kilograms of trash a day. It even estimates that under optimal conditions, that number could increase to 100,000 kilograms of waste per day.
Ocean Cleanup has built just four Interceptors to date, but two of those systems are already operating.
There is one in Indonesia and one in Malaysia. The organization plans to roll out a third system in Vietnam and a fourth system in the Dominican Republic.
Ocean Cleanup has ambitious plans of tackling 1,000 of the world's most polluting rivers, which the organization says are responsible for 80 percent of plastic waste present in oceans, before the end of 2025.
