MR TRASH 2014 - This is the solar and water-wheel powered barge in Baltimore harbor. Two floating booms direct river debris to the front of the water wheel. A raking system helps move trash onto a conveyor belt that dumps it into a skip at the rear. A solar panel array keeps the wheel moving when the river flow is reduced. All in all a nice bit of engineering.

JULY 2014 - TREEHUGGER: BALTIMORE RIVER WATER WHEEL - MR TRASH

Sometimes old technologies prove to be the best. This is surely the case in Baltimore where a giant water wheel is removing tons of trash every day from the water, keeping it from ending up in the ocean. This centuries-old technology is quickly becoming the best solution yet for keeping plastic out of the oceans.

The Inner Harbor Water Wheel sits at the mouth of the Jones Falls River where it empties into the Inner Harbor. This river is fed into by the entire Jones Falls Watershed which encompasses 58-square miles of land where tiny streams all lead to the Jones Falls River, which empties into the harbor. Any trash that ends up on the street or ground instead of in trash cans or recycling bins ends up in storm drains, heading down that river and eventually making its way to the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

The water wheel sits at the perfect place to collect all of this debris before it can make it any farther and it's working really well. Every day since May 16 when it was installed, it has removed tons of debris from the water, with about 63 tons collected as of July 7. It's capable of processing 25 tons a day, though it hasn't ever processed more than about 5 tons in a day.

The wheel works because the current of the river provides power to turn the water wheel. The wheel lifts trash and debris from the water and deposits it in a dumpster barge. When there isn't enough current to turn the wheel, a solar panel array keeps the wheel moving. When the dumpster is full, a boat comes to tow it away and replace it with a new one.

The great news is that any city with tightly-controlled tributaries can have the same success with this technology. An entire watershed's trash and debris can be prevented from reaching the ocean.

The trash collected by the water wheel is taken to a waste-to-energy plant where it is burned to produce electricity. The debris can't be recycled because after rainstorms the runoff also includes sewage making the trash hazardous material.

The solar water wheel has become a bit of a celebrity. It has its own Twitter account @MrTrashWheel and a YouTube video of the wheel in action has gotten over a million views.

OCTOBER 28 2019 BALTIMORE TO GET 4TH (AND LARGEST) TRASH WHEEL

The Baltimore City watershed is adding a fourth trash interceptor to its “fleet” of world-famous, googly-eyed garbage gobblers.

This one– the largest of all– will be at the mouth of the Gwynns Falls, on the Patapsco River’s Middle Branch in South Baltimore. Its water wheel-conveyor belt system will collect trash and debris before they pollute the Patapsco and the Chesapeake Bay.

The adorably personified trash wheel “family” currently includes Mr. Trash Wheel at the Inner Harbor, Professor Trash Wheel in Canton, and Captain Trash Wheel at Masonville Cove. So far, they’ve kept 1,200 tons of trash and debris out of the river.

The newest trash wheel will need a name, of course, and the Waterfront Partnership’s Healthy Harbor Initiative is asking for suggestions. Submit yours here.

The trash wheel will be built and installed by Clearwater Mills, the Pasadena, Maryland-based company that invented the technology. It will have a grappling arm to help move large debris and a canopy covered by 72 solar panels. Solar and hydro power turn the water wheel, which powers a series of rakes and belt that will lift trash from the water and put it on a dumpster barge.

“We’ve had our googly eyes set on the Gwynns Falls for a long time,” said Adam Lindquist, director of the Healthy Harbor Initiative. “An estimated 400 tons of litter and debris flow into the Middle Branch each year. This new trash wheel will mean cleaner shorelines and less plastic in the Harbor and the Chesapeake Bay.”

Baltimore City and Baltimore County are both providing funding for operations.

“The trash wheels help give Baltimore communities the clean harbor they deserve,” Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young said in a statement. “I applaud residents who do their part to keep their neighborhoods clean so that someday we won’t need trash wheels.”

Weller Development, developer of the new waterfront Port Covington property, was an early project backer along with Continental Realty Corporation, and some funds from casino revenue are going to the trash wheel. The Maryland Port Adminstration (MPA) also committed $700,000 to construction and maintenance.

And where will all those dumpsters of collected trash go? The new interceptor’s neighbor, Wheelabrator Technologies, will offload trash from the river directly to its waste-to-energy facility for free, converting it into electricity for Maryland homes. Their in-kind support is valued at $320,000 per year.

The new trash wheel is one of five projects Clearwater Mills is working on; the other four are located in Brunswick, Georgia, Newport Beach, California, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Panama City, Panama.

By Meg Walburn Viviano

THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY - On Oct. 26, 2019, Slat revealed his organization’s new innovation’ “The Interceptor,” at a launch event on a river in the Netherlands. The company built a stage on the water so that the audience could actually see how the Interceptor works.

The Interceptor is basically a static catamaran hull that has a long floating barrier to guide trash into its opening. This barrier doesn’t interfere with other vessels or marine life as it only takes up a part of the river. It’s anchored to the riverbed in a position that allows the natural current of the waterway to push debris towards the opening of The Interceptor, where it then piles onto a netted conveyor belt.

back into the river. The shuttle then pours the waste into six on-board dumpsters, which have a capacity to hold 50 cubic meters of trash. That means it’s capable of collecting between 50,000 kg and 100,000 kg of trash per day. Once the dumpsters are nearly at capacity, an automated text message is sent to local operators, who then collect the barge, empty the dumpsters to a waste management facility, and then return the barge back to the Interceptor.

Additionally, the system is entirely solar-powered, equipped with lithium-ion batteries, free of exhaust fumes, quiet, and it can run autonomously 24/7.

The Ocean Cleanup has already built four Interceptors, two of which are installed in Indonesia and Malaysia. The other two will be used in Vietnam and the Dominican Republic. Plus, there are two more that are currently being built, which will be installed in Thailand, and California.

Furthermore, the company aims to install an Interceptor in each of the 1,000 world’s most polluting rivers by 2025. This will make a massive difference in protecting our oceans and the sea creatures that inhabit it.