As the semester draws to an end, we’d like to take the next few weeks to discuss solutions we can employ to reduce consumerism and the pollution arising from it. This week, we’ll be looking at some innovative and interesting solutions that have popped out in the recent years!
According to the Hemholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany, rivers transport up to 4 million metric tonnes of plastic to seas annually (Reuters, 2019). In Amsterdam, garbage fishing boats are used to collect no less than 3500 kg of trash a day (The Great Bubble Barrier, 2020). However, that is still not enough as smaller pieces of trash still escape. Two weeks ago, we analysed microplastics – a secondary pollutant from the degradation of bigger plastics. It is a ballooning concern, as it has even been located in the most remote of deep seas and is easily ingested by organisms because of its small size (Van Cauwenberghe, 2013).
The Great Bubble Barrier – Amsterdam
Thanks to the brilliant minds of three Dutch ladies, the Great Bubble Barrier was conceived. After its successful pilot in November 2017 in the river IJssel where 86% of waste was captured, the first long-term pilot is currently installed in Amsterdam (The Great Bubble Barrier, n.d.).
Here’s how it works:
“An air compressor – connected to renewable energy from Amsterdam’s local grid—pumps air into the tube, and holes in the tube let the air escape as bubbles. Because the tube sits diagonally across the canal, the flow of bubbles combines with the natural flow of the water to help push plastic to the side, where it lands in a catchment system and can be collected by the city.”
– Philip Ehrhorn, co-inventor of device (Reuters, 2019, emphasis added)
By catching small plastic bits missed out by garbage boats near the source in the canal, it reduces the amount of plastics flowing into the North Sea (Peters, 2020) and thus the accumulation of pollutants in the ocean sink.
Initially, I wondered if the catchment system would look unsightly. But from the pictures, it looks pretty small and the entire system looks rather aesthetic! By integrating such engineered solutions into the city, imageries on waste and pollution usually hidden out of sight are brought into everyday life, raising awareness on aquatic and marine pollution.
It seems that with engineered solutions like this, there usually exists trade-offs in terms of disturbances to the ecology. However, this invisible barrier supposedly allows fish (and even boats) to pass unobstructed (Plastic Smart Cities, n.d.; Peters, 2020). It may even be beneficial, as the bubbles aerate the water, which increases oxygen levels and prevents the growth of toxic blue algae (Plastic Smart Cities, n.d.; The Great Bubble Barrier, n.d.). Furthermore, the bubbles partially absorb sound and waves from boats which potentially protects fishes (The Great Bubble Barrier, n.d.).
There is a saying in Mandarin: “治标不治本” (Zhìbiāo bù zhìběn), which roughly translates into “treating the symptoms but not the cause”. I think that the main problem with solutions as such is how it does not directly tackle the root cause – rising consumerism and unsustainable waste disposal methods.
Nevertheless, the Great Bubble Barrier seems promising to me. They even plan to publish the data collected to aid in reducing pollution upstream (Peters, 2020). The barrier has only been implemented for less than a year, so we’ll see how it fares in years to come with more rigorous impact assessments! Maybe we’ll see this in Singapore next time?
References:
Peters, A. (2020). A simple burst of bubbles is keeping this canal clear of plastic. Fast Company. Available from: https://www.fastcompany.com/90454481/a-simple-burst-of-bubbles-is-keeping-this-river-clear-of-plastic [Accessed 18 October 2020].
Plastic Smart Cities (n.d.). The Great Bubble Barrier. Available from: https://plasticsmartcities.org/products/the-great-bubble-barrier [Accessed 18 October 2020].
Reuters (2019). Amsterdam trials ‘bubble barrier’ to clean river waste. Available from: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-netherlands-pollution-plastic-idUSKBN1YL1CS [Accessed 18 October 2020].
The Great Bubble Barrier (n.d.). Long-term pilot – 2020-2021: Bubble Barrier Amsterdam. Available from: https://thegreatbubblebarrier.com/en/ [Accessed 18 October 2020].
The Great Bubble Barrier (2020). First Bubble Barrier stops plastic from Amsterdam’s canals. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_KwF-gf0S0 [Accessed 18 October 2020].
Van Cauwenberghe, L., Vanreusel, A., Mees, J. & Janssen, C.R. (2013). Microplastic pollution in deep-sea sediments. Environmental Pollution. 182, 495-499. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2013.08.013