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.
The boat offering the solution to pollution
