test

Tag: plastic pollution

An accidental environmentalist

What do a whale sharks, robots and plastic pollution have in common?

A new plastic gobbling invention is taking a ‘bite’ out of marine pollution and making a difference in the global fight to clean oceans and waterways. Inspired by nature and created to preserve nature, the WasteShark’s design and purpose was modeled after the slow-moving, filter-feeding whale shark, one of nature’s most efficient reapers of marine biomass.

The WasteShark is an invention of Richard Hardiman, CEO of RanMarine Technology, a drone technology company based in the Netherlands. As Mr. Hardiman puts it, he invented a machine. In doing so, as his young son quite profoundly said, he created a life for his family out of his head. Mr. Hardiman took an idea that popped out of thin air into his self-described noisy mind, stepped away from his extreme dedication to procrastination, and just did it. He took action; he executed on the idea. You see, many people have great ideas, but what separates a successful idea from a passing brilliant thought that never goes anywhere is the execution.

The product expected to help eliminate plastic pollution was first launched in the canals of the Netherlands in 2017. That execution of an idea swirling in one man’s brain is now on its way to protects the earth’s waterways from the marine debris that threatens to choke it. This new innovation is replacing the traditional, less efficient method of marine waste removal: humans on boats armed with nets.

The idea is simple: After guzzling plastics, microplastics, alien and pest vegetation such as algae and all types of floating debris with its mouth, it returns to shore to dispose of the waste. In addition to this ability to collect waste, RanMarine has pioneered the collection of live data from water-borne drones, to measure water health quality. The WasteShark is designed for round-the-clock waste collection, but it can also send data on water conditions back to a central command point. With 180 liters (47.5 gallons) of capacity and an eight hour runtime, this hardworking robot can remove 500kg (1100lb) of waste a day.

THIS HARDWORKING ROBOT CAN REMOVE 500KG OF WASTE A DAY.

The WasteShark is also easy to use and deploy. It uses 4G onboard communications and an easy setup process. Additionally, the drone uses advanced battery technology ensuring emission-free operation on the water, and not adding to the water’s pollution. The technology is equipped for collision avoidance, and is perfect for canals, ports and along waterlines where plastics inevitably meet the ocean.

It can work both manually, operated with a remote, and fully autonomously. The autonomous WasteShark can detect when its battery is low and when its basket is full. It will then return to its docking station, or SharkPod. The SharkPod is the world’s first autonomous floating docking station for waste-clearing drones. With the ability to deploy, dock and charge up to five WasteShark drones at any time, this latest tool in pollution-fighting technology is enabling ports, harbours and cities to operate a twenty-four hour autonomous solution to remove floating waste from the water. With the ability to remove one ton of waste per drone per day, RanMarine expects the SharkPod to be capable of removing up to one hundred tons or more of debris and waste per month.

A self-proclaimed “accidental environmentalist”, Mr. Hardiman is an entrepreneur at heart and believes that it is not governmental and non-governmental organizations alone that can and will improve the environment. He believes, and has proven, that businesses seeking profits will produce the innovations necessary to protect the planet. To stop or restrict economic activity is to restrict innovation, and innovation is our best weapon against the problems we face today.

From the US to the UAE, the UK to Australia and South Africa, the WasteShark’s global deployment has elevated this amazing invention to one of the leading solutions in the fight against plastic pollution in our waterways. Even better: RanMarine, the company behind the WasteShark, will soon have more than one size of the WasteShark available. The MegaShark, for example, will be made for open-ocean navigation. With an estimated one million plastic bottles entering the ocean every minute, it looks like it will be a welcome helper in the fight against plastic pollution in the oceans.

Read article on Oceanographic magazine

Words By Shelly Mateer 

Photographs by RanMarine Technology
Additional Photographs by Lewis Burnett

A New Hero In The Battle Against Ocean Pollution: The WasteShark

Written by Shelly Mateer and published on Medium

New floating drones could help fight plastic pollution

Floating drones inspired by whale sharks and four-wheeled robots are the latest inventions in an attempt to address plastic pollution, Bloomberg reports.

RanMarine Technology, an organization based in Rotterdam, has developed what they call a ‘WasteShark’ that collects waste through a wide opening that mimics a whale shark. The WasteShark is an autonomous surface vessel, this means that it requires no supervision as it can be left in the chosen water body, with a preset route, using GPS to navigate and then return home.

The organisation claims that the WasteShark can collect up to 500kg of waste per day. There is also a four-wheeled version, a beachbot, that collects small litter like cigarette butts and bottle caps. You can view the WasteShark in action on the canals of Holland below.

 

A recent publication in Nature Sustainability provided a comprehensive analysis of the solutions to tackle marine litter. Even though policies are being created to address plastic pollution, such as the decision taken by Tanzania in 2019 to ban all plastic bags in the country, the publication brings up the issue of the existing plastic in our oceans.

The research was led by biologist Nikoleta Bellou who commented that “the oceans have already been polluted to such an extent, simultaneous to all the actions needed to reduce pollution at the source”.

Plastics pollution is piling up faster than initiatives to correct it, with calculations indicating that it will take about 100 years to retrieve 5% of plastic in the oceans

As much as 91 million tons have entered the world’s oceans between 1980 and 2015, with more than 8 million tons entering the oceans every year. What we see on the surface is only 5% of the plastic in the oceans. plastic has contaminated the darkest parts of the Mariana trench and is so widespread that it is estimated that by 2050, 99% of seabirds would have ingested plastic.

The worsening plastic pollution on the planet seems as if our reality is coming to represent Pixar’s 2008  film, Wall-E, where the earth so despoiled that it is no longer inhabitable that humans are living in some kind of space-ark while a robot is left to clean up the waste. But this is just a movie…

To prevent this dystopia,  policies to avoid disincentive plastic production and encourage a circular economy as well as public education on the harms of plastic are needed in collaboration with technofixes such as the WasteShark. In 2010, South Africa ranked 11th on the list of the worst offenders regarding plastic pollution in the ocean. South Africa only recycles 16% of its plastic, where the rest end up in landfills where they can easily blow into rivers and eventually, the ocean.

Article by Getaway