Around 80 per cent of all the plastic in the oceans comes from rivers. The Interceptor is The Ocean Cleanup’s answer to this problem. The Interceptor has been designed to independently gather waste from rivers and is 100% solar-powered. Waste enters The Interceptor through the natural flow of the river and is then captured on a conveyor belt. Each Interceptor is connected to the internet, so that The Ocean Cleanup is able to continuously monitor and collect data, and automatically inform local operators when the collection containers are full. The power of The Interceptor lies in its autonomous nature and the scalability of production. The more that are put into use, the more can be cleaned up, bringing the ultimate goal of this Dutch non-profit organisation in sight: clean oceans.

Coming up with structural solutions to serious environmental threats is a gigantic ambition. The Ocean Cleanup demonstrates that it is a process in which you can learn through doing. Despite the pressure and criticism for earlier projects, Boyan Slat and Fabrique have now courageously sketched a new scenario that brings us a step closer to the source of the problem: plastic waste that travels in rivers and ends up in the ocean. A great collaboration between young talented individuals and a renowned agency, where design is used as problem solver. The technology has been thought through on all levels and the potential operational scale of deploying multiple Interceptors is promising.