WasteShark – robot that collects trash on the water

WasteShark – a plastic “eating” robot is being deployed in London to reduce water pollution in the area.

On March 18, Britvic-owned company Aqua Libra launched the first WasteShark in London. WasteShark is a marine robot built by Ran Marine, designed to remove plastic waste from regional waters while collecting data to help improve the environment.

The Aqua Libra WasteShark was deployed at London’s Canary Wharf this week as part of a project to clean up the area and transform the water body into a healthier and more biodiverse environment.

Canary Wharf Group, the business that develops and manages the area, has made a huge effort to reduce the amount of single-use plastic. But the heavy traffic means disposable coffee cups and lunch wrappers are too numerous to fall into the water and pollute the river.

Scientists have estimated that up to 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean each year, most of it swept from cities and residential areas to the sea along rivers.

What can WasteShark do?

WasteShark runs on electric batteries, moving slowly for a maximum distance of 5 km on a single charge. This travel time is equivalent to approximately 8-10 hours of cleaning. The waste that WasteShark collected was about 500kg of debris, equivalent to about 21,000 plastic bottles.

All types of waste are collected in the robot’s belly, then will be disembarked, sorted, sent for recycling or responsibly disposed of. While filling the compartment with trash, WasteShark also collected water samples needed for evaluation.

According to Môi trường Đô thị