Dutch non-profit The Ocean Cleanup has launched the Interceptor, an autonomous system for collecting plastic pollution from rivers before it reaches the sea.
The organisation said the solar-powered system would augment its ongoing efforts to remove marine plastic waste from the oceans.
"To truly rid the oceans of plastic, we need to both clean up the legacy and close the tap, preventing more plastic from reaching the oceans in the first place," said The Ocean Cleanup founder Boyan Slat.
"Combining our ocean cleanup technology with the Interceptor, the solutions now exist to address both sides of the equation."

Interceptors consist of floating barriers attached to processing plants that resemble barges and are anchored to the river bed. The barriers funnel plastic waste into the mouth of the plant, which is powered by solar panels and operates without the need for human operators. A conveyor belt separates the waste from the water and moves it up to a shuttle, which automatically dumps the waste into containers on a separate barge docked below.

When the containers are all full, the onboard computer system alerts local partners to bring a boat and tow the barge of plastic waste away for recycling. Each system only spans part of the river, so boats and wildlife can manoeuvre around it.
According to the The Ocean Cleanup, each Interceptor can extract 50,000 kilograms of trash from a river each day, going up to 100,000 kilograms "under optimised condi...