Giant screen fitted across Guatemalan river to stop plastic from reaching ocean

Interceptor Trashfence has been installed on the Las Vacas River to catch rubbish heading for the Caribbean

Piles of rubbish on the banks of the polluted Las Vacas river, in Chinautla, Guatemala. Dutch NGO The Ocean Cleanup will install a giant metal fence called an 'interceptor', to catch thousands of tonnes of plastic waste generated in Guatemala City to prevent it from flowing into the Caribbean Sea. AFP

Boyan Slat, founder and chief executive of The Ocean Cleanup, on the banks of the Las Vacas river in Guatemala, a tributary of the extensive Motagua river. AFP

Plastic bottles and other waste choke the waters of the Las Vacas river in Guatemala. AFP

Rubbish covers the banks of the Las Vacas river. AFP

A bridge over the river in Chinautla, on the outskirts of Guatemala City. The Ocean Cleanup project faces unique seasonal challenges that include huge volumes of waste and high water pressure during the rainy season. AP Photo

Here the river, described by the NGO as one of the most polluted in the world, flows beneath a bridge in Santa Cruz, Chinautla. 'Our mission is to rid the oceans of garbage and that is why we are working on one of the most polluting watersheds in the world and turning it into one of the cleanest', Boyan Slat said. EPA

Dutch environmentalists from The Ocean Cleanup plan to transform the heavily polluted river. EPA

Mountains of waste on the banks of the Las Vacas river in Guatemala. Reuters

A huge steel-mesh screen has been fixed on a heavily polluted river in Guatemala to stop plastics and other debris from reaching the ocean.

The Interceptor Trashfence has been set up on the Las Vacas River outside Guatemala City to block mounds of plastic rubbish deposited by fluctuating river currents.

It has been installed by non-profit group The Ocean Cleanup before the rainy season, when rubbish could be swept downstream into the Caribbean.

The screen, which looks like a big cyclone wire fence stretched across the river bed, is anchored to the banks. The device has caught so much rubbish that one part appears to have buckled.

“What we are trying to do is help clean up,” said Boyan Slat, director of Ocean Cleanup. “We have never seen plastic pollution like this.”

He estimated the river carries about 20,000 tonnes of rubbish annually.

Tests are being carried out on the barrier, the group said.

“We continue to evaluate variables such as fence height, mesh size, and foundation security during this pilot period in Guatemala,” it said.

The rubbish has sparked complaints in Honduras, as much of the plastic winds up on its shores.