Plastic Vortex

Based in Toulouse, France; Plastic Vortex is a system that captures floating plastic waste from rivers using a device that does not use any electrical or fuel power.

Nearly 80% of the waste pollution in the oceans comes from urban pollution through rivers. Plastic Vortex aims to reduce such upstream pollution using a simple system that captures the waste floating down rivers.

The Plastic Vortex system consists of a floating platform connected with floating arms that make a V-shape. The system faces the downstream flow of a river. All floating waste is captured by the arms and directed towards the platform at the centre.

The waste is transferred to a tub by a conveyor belt, which is rotated by turbines that run on the river currents and not on electricity or fuel. The tub is carried to the shore using a hand-operated pulley.

The floating devices and arms are made of waste materials like plastic bottles.

The Plastic Vortex team visits the system, which is installed on the Garrone river, several times during the week depending on the weather conditions. They recover an average of thirty plastic bottles at each visit. The system which has so far collected 112 kilograms of floating waste including 1,083 plastic bottles. 

The inventor is seeking €35,000 through a crowdfunding campaign to produce and deploy its second system in 2020. It is doing research to make the system more reliable and aims to deploy it on other rivers in the Occitanie region and eventually in all of France.

Its partners include Orange Foundation, Dassault Systems, FAB14+, and Artilect.