Rivers dump approximately eight million metric tons of plastic into the world’s oceans each year. It’s killing entire ecosystems, including many endangered species.

Since one percent of the rivers around the world dump eighty percent of the plastic into our oceans, it makes sense to target the problem before the plastics and other garbage reach the ocean. While researchers and activists insist that preventing plastic pollution is the top priority, cleanup measures are part of the solution.

After watching garbage flow down a local river for years and after volunteering to cleanup the river, a Baltimore man jumped into action. John Kellett drew up some plans for a machine powered by a water wheel. He designed it to intercept trash at the mouth of Jones Falls, which is the main source of harbor pollution. He installed a prototype in 2008 and it was a success. By 2014, the technology was rebranded as Mr. Trash Wheel—a floating miracle that resembles a miniature riverboat.

Mr. Trash Wheel is a simple trash interceptor that is placed at the end of a river, stream or other outfall. It employs both solar and hydropower to pull hundreds of tons of trash out of the water each year. It’s an idea that demands replication in key rivers around the world.

Using containment booms, trash flowing down the river is funneled into Mr. Trash Wheel’s collection system. Two booms reach outward and under the surface of the water to capture trash. The booms funnel the garbage onto a conveyor belt that feeds a large dumpster. Once the dumpster fills, it is towed away and replaced. Ideally, the plastic gets recycled, but current sorting technologies are unable to separate the plastics from other trash. For now, the city incinerates the trash to create electricity.

“I don’t think of the Trash Wheel as a solution,” said John Kellett, inventor of Mr. Trash Wheel. “We are treating a symptom of the disease. It’s not a cure.”

Mr. Trash Wheel has spawned replicas around Baltimore—Professor Trash Wheel, Captain Trash Wheel, and Gwynnda the Good Wheel of the West. Similar models also are planned for Newport Beach, California and Managua, Nicaragua. 

Professor Trash Wheel has been cleaning up Harris Creek since December 2016. Captain Trash Wheel has been cleaning up Masonville Cove since June 2018 and Gwynnda the Good Wheel of the West, the largest system so far, has been working hard at Gwynns Falls since June 2021.

Trasharella is coming soon to Newport Beach, California and Dona Rueda is scheduled to be the first venture into international waters—in Panama.

So far, the Mr. Trash family has collected 2,004 tons of trash. The most Mr. Trash Wheel has ever collected in a single day is 38,000 lbs. On a sunny day, the solar panels can produce 2,500 watts of electricity—enough to power a typical Maryland home.

Mr. Trash was invented and constructed by Clearwater Mills, LLC. It is owned and maintained by Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore and funded by Maryland Port Administration and Constellation. Additional funding provided by Brown Advisory, The Abell Foundation, and Marriott Hotels.

Greener Cities is a division of Crossbow Communications. Greener Cities is a resource for sustainable and resilient cities and communities around the world.

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Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for seven counties in Southwest Florida over an unusually severe red tide outbreak. Unfortunately, red tide is now another symptom of sewage mismanagement on land. Florida, like most states, now thinks of toxic sewage (biosolids) as fertilizer. The wind and the rain have a way of spreading this toxic waste far and wide.

Red tide, which scientists call a harmful algae bloom, is partly caused by a naturally occurring alga (a plant-like microorganism) called Karenia brevis or K. brevis. When K. brevis appears in large quantities – typically in the Gulf of Mexico – it can turn ocean water red, brown or green. K. brevis is fueled by some of the harmful toxins that it encounters in the ocean, much of which comes from sewage and surface water runoff from cities and rural areas alike. The toxins absorbed by red tide can impact the nervous systems of fish, birds and mammals (including humans).

Ironically, at least one form of agriculture fertilizer also attacks the nervous system—human sewage. Some health advocates believe that water runoff from these farms and dumping sites are fueling the red tide and the rise in neurodegenerative disease around the world.

Red tides are not unusual in the Gulf of Mexico and the western coast of Florida. The strong smell; eye, nose, and throat irritation; and large fish kills related to the event have been documented as far back as the 1840s. Red tides are caused by tiny algae that grow on the surface of the ocean, occasionally giving it a reddish-brown tint. Thus, scientists can use satellite imagery to map the extent of red tides and monitor how they spread over time. Satellites detect changes in the way the sea surface reflects light. These changes can be linked to concentrations of chlorophyll, showing where algae and other ocean plants are concentrated in the ocean.

In his declaration, Gov. Scott’s office made two points: The state is supporting communities struggling with the scourge, and in an attempt to defend the agriculture industry he said that the siege of seafaring microorganisms is “naturally occurring.” Unfortunately, the problem and the solution aren’t that simple.

The declaration will provide money and resources to address a problem that’s lingered since October in Charlotte, Collier, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Pinellas and Sarasota counties.

At 10 months, the current bloom is testing the resilience of communities and the priorities of government. Red tides have lasted as long as 24-months in southwestern Florida since the turn of the century. The frequency and the duration of these deadly tides appears to be rising.

Indeed, scientists and historians note fish kills triggered by the infestations dating back as early as the 1500s. While scientists today acknowledge the natural roots of Florida’s red tides, they also are investigating the possibility that persistent blooms, like the one besetting the Gulf Coast this summer, might be getting a “booster shot” from man-made pollutants that spill into the ocean.

Both the coastal red tide and the inland blue-green algae have beset South Florida through the summer, killing vast numbers of fish and other wildlife, including dozens of dolphins, manatees, sea turtles, sharks and eels. Humans also have been sickened by brevetoxins, which are emitted by the tiny organisms — karenia brevis — that create the red tide. Breathing the fallout can constrict the lungs’ bronchioles and send asthmatics to emergency rooms with coughs and shortness of breath.

Scott last month declared an emergency because of the blue-green algae bloom that began in giant Lake Okeechobee, before spreading to multiple rivers and canals.

The declaration helped pave the way for assistance, including the deployment of biologists and other scientists from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to rescue wildlife and to clear away the innumerable creatures that could not be saved.

Along with Scott’s action comes a $900,000 grant to Lee County, home to Fort Myers and the epicenter of the red tide, to help cope with the cleanup. That brings the total amount granted to the county, where some tourists have cut short their summer vacations, to $1.3 million.

Another $500,000 will go to Visit Florida, so the agency can support local tourism officials in mounting a campaign to try to bring visitors back to the red tide zone — which stretches more than 100 miles from Sarasota nearly to the tip of the state.

“We will continue to deploy all state resources and do everything possible to make sure that Gulf Coast residents are safe and area businesses can recover,” Scott said in a statement.

The red tide initially tends to thrive in low-nutrient environments, where it does not have to compete with other organisms. But when the blooms take hold and move closer to shore, they can thrive on nitrogen and other elements that could be fueled by pollution.

One researcher recalled his recent sampling trip along the coast, seeing the pollutants that brought the blue-green algae to the Caloosahatchee River spill into the Gulf just a couple miles from where the red tide exploded, near Fort Myers.

“It seems pretty damned obvious there is a connection,” Mitsch said, adding a cautionary note: “But that doesn’t mean there actually is one. That is why we are investigating. We have to dig deeper.”

Farming fertilizers already are blamed for fueling another Florida plague — the blue-green algae that chokes inland lakes, rivers and canals in the south part of the state, including giant Lake Okeechobee. This farm runoff also includes tons of human sewage, also known as biosolids, which has been pawned off on farmers as fertilizer since the early 1990s. Wastewater treatment plants throughout the east and southeast are paying farmers and other managers of open space, including golf courses, parks and playgrounds, to dump this toxic, infectious waste (biosolids). Florida and other states in the southeast get more than their share. It’s killing more than fish.

Such a finding likely would reinvigorate calls for greater regulation of the prime source of the pollutants —agricultural runoff from sugar cane and other farms in South Florida.

Read The Full Story About Florida’s red Tide

Greener Cities is a division of Crossbow Communications. Greener Cities is a resource for sustainable and resilient cities and communities around the world.

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San Francisco on Tuesday became the first major city in the U.S. to ban the sale of plastic water bottles on public property, building on a nationwide effort to curb waste from the billion-dollar industry. The nine-months-in-the-making proposal by Board of Supervisors President David Chiu navigated a number of challenging issues, from The City’s drinking-water infrastructure to impacts on events such as the Folsom Street Fair or lower-key nonprofit events that often rely on the sale of bottled water for revenue.

Even as the American Beverage Association opposed the restrictions, staunch environmentalists were calling for a tougher crackdown.

During the next four years, the ban will phase out the sales of plastic water bottles holding 21 ounces or less on city property, indoor or outdoor, which will impact park vendors, food truck operators, street fairs and places like the Moscone Center convention facility. Waivers are permissible if an adequate alternative water source is not available.

“It was not long ago that our world wasn’t addicted to plastic water bottles,” Chiu said. “It wasn’t until the 1990s that the now-$60 billion plastic-bottle water industry experienced an enormous growth based on massive marketing and distribution campaigns.”

The proposal was supported by the Think Outside the Bottle campaign, a nationwide effort that encourages restrictions of the “eco-unfriendly product.” San Francisco’s ban is less strict than the full prohibitions passed in 14 national parks, a number of universities and Concord, Mass.

“This is legislation that takes a much more targeted approach to reducing plastic-bottle waste,” Chiu said.

In San Francisco, Recology collects 10 million to 15 million single-use plastic water bottles a year, Chiu said. Violators of the ban would face fines of up to $1,000.

Joshua Arce, chairman of the Commission on the Environment, said the ban is “another step forward on our zero-waste goal.” The City wants to have no waste going to its landfill by 2020. Its diversion rate now stands at 80 percent.

Past efforts toward the goal included banning plastic bags and plastic-foam containers.

“We had big public events for decades without plastic bottles and we’ll do fine without them again,” Arce said.

The American Beverage Association, which includes Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo, said in a statement that the ban was “nothing more than a solution in search of a problem. This is a misguided attempt by city supervisors to decrease waste in a city of avid recyclers.”

Chiu said Tuesday that future restrictions may follow.

“If we can do this on public property and folks understand that this is absolutely doable, then we can look at next steps,” he said.

The Board of Supervisors voted 11-0 to approve the legislation Tuesday.

Greener Cities is a division of Crossbow Communications. Greener Cities is a resource for sustainable and resilient cities and communities around the world.

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