Amazing Trash Eating Boat!

In the age where many water contaminants are measured in parts per billion, such as pharmaceuticals in our rivers, there is one issue that can be seen with the naked eye - floatable debris in our waterways. As the name would suggest, floatable debris is any waterborne waste material that is buoyant, such as wood, cans, bottles, etc.

This weekend I read an article about how the US Army Corps has been collecting floatable debris in the New York harbor since 1915. According to the article, "last year, the three boats picked up 4,600 cubic tons of debris, enough to fill nearly 200 tractor-trailers and prevent an estimated $23 million in damage to boats and ships." 

On average this is roughly 12 tons of debris picked up a day in the New York harbor.  This is staggering to me, however, there are approximately 679 combined sewer overflow (CSO) points discharging to the open waters of the NY/NJ Harbor so there are lots of opportunities for debris to get into the water.

So, how do you get debris out of a harbor?  One cool tool is United Marine International's Trashcat boat. I never knew something like this existed. Now, if we could develop a fleet of huge boats the size of an oil tanker, maybe we could tackle the three million tons of trash floating in the Pacific Ocean... See Previous Post.

(Video Location UMI TrashCat Trash Skimmer)