A Smart Solution To Plastic Pollution: The Great Bubble Barrier

I remember watching a video a couple of years ago. There was a stunning island, the waves splashing up against the golden, glittering sand, lush green trees, and then a white bird with black, blank eyes, lying dead, with plastic bottle caps gutting out of its feathers. Plastics have become an integral part of our lives. From using polythene bags, to lining milk cartons with plastic, it is one of the most overused item in today’s world because of its easy availability and cheap price. However, with the rising use of plastics in the past decade, also comes the problem of Plastic Pollution. Pollution due to plastic not only has a negative effect on humans and animals due to its toxicity, but also chips into land, air and water pollution. Researchers estimate that out of the billions of tones of plastic produced since 1950, only 9% of it has been recycled, 12% incinerated and the rest has accumulated in the environment in landfills, oceans, rivers, dumps, etc. According to the data published by Christian Schmidt, Tobias Krauth and Stephan Wagner in “Export of Plastic Debris by Rivers into the Sea”, the two largest rivers in India, Ganga and Brahmaputra alone carry plastic wastes from inland and contribute to around 72,000 tonnes of plastic that ends up in the ocean. UN Environment states that if our current trends continue, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by the year 2050!

The Earth is drowning in plastic and we need new technologies and innovations to deal with this imperative issue. One such Dutch Start-up has come up with a smart solution to deal with ocean pollution due to plastics with their ‘Great Bubble Barrier’ which aims to capture plastic from rivers before it reaches the ocean. The Bubble Barrier creates a screen of air bubbles by driving compressed air through a perforated tube placed diagonally. The rising bubbles move up and make use of the natural river current to carry the plastic waste to the water surface from where the waste is collected. The Bubble Barrier not only has minimal effect on fish, ships, and overall functioning of the river but also increases oxygen levels which stops Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB). The bubble screen also absorbs sounds and waves created by passing ships such that aquatic animals experience less disturbances. In November 2017, a pilot was launched in the river IJ and the results showed that the Bubble Barrier directed approximately 86% all test material to the banks of the river where it could be easily collected. Two years later, in November 2019, Anne Marieke Eveleens, Saskia Studer, Francis Zoet and Philip Ehrhorn, the people behind this start-up, installed their very first long term Bubble Barrier in Westerdock, Amesterdam. The Westerdock is a canal in Amsterdam which is an exist to the river IJ which further leads to the North Sea. With the Bubble Barrier, the Water Management Board in Westerdock is looking towards capturing plastic wastes up to 1 millimetre in size. The Great Bubble Barrier is a simple yet effective solution and is also easily scalable. We need more such innovative solutions that benefit the ecosystem and make the world a better, cleaner and hopefully, a plastic free place!

Find out more at:
https://thegreatbubblebarrier.com/en/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC4s1gywFvp6l0n7utCM-OA