New Trash-Eating “Shark” Cleans the Water in Rotterdam

The port of Rotterdam, in The Netherlands, will feature soon the ‘Waste Shark,’ a drone the size of your car, floating around the port’s waters to “eat” trash for processing.

Rotterdam is a port of pioneers. Ever since the plan of Pieter Caland in 1872 to build the Nieuwe Waterweg, connecting the Rhine with the North Sea, new solutions that make the port of Rotterdam smarter and more sustainable are thought up constantly. Under the startup program PortXL, Rotterdam’s port authority promotes new solutions to help make it overall just a better place. In cooperation with a South-African startup RanMarine the port authority starts to deploy a new drone on its waters — the Waste Shark.

The Waste Shark is an autonomous vessel to gather waste from Rotterdam’s busy waters before it can be washed out to sea. The drone the size of a car and can eat up to 500 kilograms of trash using a ‘mouth’ 35 cm under the water line. It will fight ‘plastic soup’ at the source as 90% of all the waste in the ocean starts in urban areas, PortXL reports. It’s powered by solar panels and batteries with the ability to learn its environment and become more efficient in its routes and collections. 

Port of Rotterdam CEO Allard Castelein states that: “The Port of Rotterdam believes it has a responsibility to come up with sustainable solutions for a cleaner environment. This pilot with Ranmarine, regarding cleaning waterways in Rotterdam, could deliver an important contribution to our Port Waste Catch initiative. This initiative aims to remove plastic waste from the port and port basins before it drifts out to sea.”

Four Waste Sharks will scour the waters for the next six months as part of a test run for the drones. They will operate in areas where it is too difficult, dangerous, or undesirable to use manned solutions. This includes under bridges and other structures.

The Waste Shark is a great innovation, as it is a new solution to contribute to a worldwide effort of solving the issue of more and more plastic waste ending up in our oceans and seas. Being Dutch and having lived in Rotterdam for 15 years, I am proud that Rotterdam in addition to being Europe’s largest port, also is one of the world’s most technologically advanced. “Innovation flows through Rotterdam, like the water through the Maas,” a poetic entrepreneur once said.

Once the pilot has proven successful, I hope that ports all over the world will adopt Waste Sharks in an effort to prevent more plastic ending up in our seas.

Let's innovate for a better world!

Did you like this post? Then, check out Gijs van Wulfen's new book 'The Innovation Maze' at: Amazon UK or Amazon US.

Are you looking for a speaker on innovation? Check out the movies and reviews at gijsvanwulfen.com. To read more from Gijs on LinkedIn, please click the FOLLOW button above or below.