Recently, the Portsmouth port in southern Britain has begun to launch a "floating marine trash can" that can "suck" plastic bottles, plastic bags and cigarette butts from the sea.
A floating marine trash can inhale the sea and water with a submersible pump, then through a bag inside the bucket, to cut off all the waste of more than 2 millimeters in diameter and filter out the sea water. The storage bag can hold up to 12 kilograms and replace it after it is full.
It is preliminarily estimated that the trash can collect 1.5 kilograms of waste a day, which is equivalent to collecting twenty thousand plastic bottles or 83 thousand plastic bags a year.
In addition, the trash can collect oil from the sea surface.
The inventor of the floating marine trash can is two Australian surf enthusiasts, which stimulate them to develop the trash can, the plastic waste they are really fed up with when they are surfing.
Before the Portsmouth port was officially launched, the trash can have been tested in several shipyards around the world. During the test, the most common garbage collected is packing bags of cigarette, plastic, and potato chips.
According to the two inventors, in general, a small boat dock needs about four such floating trash cans, placed in areas where tidal and ocean currents lead to waste aggregation.
According to the data reported by Reuters, there are 8 million tons of plastic waste thrown into the ocean every year on average, of which only 9% can be recycled. Of the 8 million tons of plastic waste, less than 20% are due to normal human activities such as fishing.