John Kelett, an American engineer wanted to get rid of the pollution in the port of Baltimore. He invented a wheel machine working with water flow that collect all the trash floating on Baltimore’s water. When the current is too weak, solar panels could take over. The collected waste lands on a conveyor belt that transports them to a container at the back of the boat.
Mister Trash Wheel is a success
Thanks to the prototype, built in 2008, the amount of waste has been reduced dramatically. It attracted the attention of the organization Waterfront Partnership which decided to finance the construction of a bigger boat. That’s how in 2014 Mr. Trash Wheel is born.
Since 2014, in Baltimore Harbor, the ship has collected 500.000 kg of waste, including 9 million cigarette butts, 340.000 crisps pack, 372.000 plastic bottles, 260.000 plastic bags, 460.000 polystyrene containers and other waste … Today, Mister Trash Wheel is helped by another boat nicknamed Professor. Their main objective for 2020, is making fishing possible in the harbor. Still, today the port of Baltimore has become a model in terms of cleanliness.
May be Mr. Trash Wheel and Professor will inspire other cities and countries. Who knows, maybe, one day an army of machine will be able to clean up our rivers and oceans. Sir Trash wheel is a star now, if you want to follow his adventure you can follow him on social media, he even has a twitter account!
