WaterWay Cleanup for the Terracycle Global Foundation
The TerraCycle Global Foundation is dedicated to tackling the issue of waste in the rivers and waterways of communities across the globe. In 2019 the TerraCycle Global Foundation partnered with the Thai environmental group, the Blue Carbon Society, to support the Thai government in the installation of marine debris capture devices in the tributaries of the Tha Chin River in Samut Sakhon. The TerraCycle Foundations’ objective was to create a waterway debris collection system that could be produced by the local communities and used to collect water waste in the Tha Chin River.
The TerraCycle Global Foundation was able to give the design team feedback on the needs of the local Samut Sakhon community through their research in Thailand. The images of the Tha Chin river show the scope of the waste issue in the waterways that the river traps would have to address.
Looking at the current water debris capture devices on the market they all share a very key feature. Passive collection of debris from the water's surface. Our goal in the development of the river traps was to meet this passive waterway collection standard and allow manufacturers in Thailand to easily build and maintain the device.
Initial sketching led to a concept for the removal of the container from the anchored river trap. The rivers throughout Thailand have high boating traffic, and we wanted to develop a device that allowed for the removal of waste via boat access. Adding the platforms on the tops of the supporting tubes would allow for workers to safely collect waste and transport the collection container.
To communicate to the local manufacturers in Samut Sakhon the overall dimensions and features of the river trap system were developed as a 3D model and sent to the manufacturers.
The 3D model allowed the local manufacturers in Samut Sakhon to build a working prototype of the river trap. This initial prototype was tested in the Tha Chin river and was successful in collecting surface waterway waste.
In just a few months after implementing the river trap, the TerraCycle Thai Foundation team collected over 65 metric tons of river waste in Tha Chin river via three river traps. This amounted to approximately 1.7 metric tons of river waste collection per river trap every week.
