THE Solution?

First The Ocean Cleanup and now The Interceptor; Dutch eco-entrepreneur Boyan Slat is famous all over the world with his inventions. His inventions focus on getting rid of all the plastic that is currently wandering in the waters across the earth. Not only the oceans but also the rivers and lakes are filled with garbage and are being targeted right now.

Photo source: Newspaper Trouw

After the successful The Ocean Cleanup — which was launched in Vancouver , Canada — Slat has now come up with a new invention to do an attempt at solving the problem, by focussing on the place where the trash gets dumped; the rivers. The Interceptor is already being used in rivers in Jakarta, Indonesia. So far it has been really successful. But are these things going to be THE solution for the plastic problem on earth?

For decades now, sea mammals have had to deal with all the garbage that is being dumped into rivers and other waters. Since their dinner doesn’t look much different from a plastic bag it is hard for them to make sure they don’t eat something they shouldn’t. Take jellyfish for example, if you’d put a tank of water next to them with knotted plastic bags floating in it, it really doesn’t look much different from each other.

I think it is amazing what Slat is doing and it is incredibly inspiring how a student of such a young age can come up with huge solutions that impact all of us. The Interceptor make sure the garbage rises up from the bottom of the waters on earth and filters them out. Is it THE solution? Maybe not, we’d have to make sure the source of plastic dumping in the water dies out. But it sure is a damn good way of getting rid of an issue that is caused by an even bigger issue.