WasteShark collecting rubbish from Thames

A new WasteShark has been deployed on the River Thames to collect rubbish.

The shark has been deployed in Canary Wharf as part of a programme to clean up the area and make it healthier and more biodiverse.

The battery-powered WasteShark can travel up to 5km in one charge, about 8-10 hours of cleaning time. The WasteShark can collect around 500kg of waste in one day - around 21,000 plastic bottles.

The waste that is collected is brought back to land to be sorted and then recycled or disposed of responsibly.

The WasteShark also collects water quality data to analyse the quality of the water.

The WasteShark was created by Ran Marine. Richard Hardiman from the company said: “I liken it to a Roomba for water. It's an autonomous machine that scoops up pollution out of water on the surface level.”

“That pollution could be plastic or any debris or biomass like algae."

“The way we designed the WasteShark was that it was zero impact on the environment that it's working in.

“You'll see a lot of boats that go out and clean are normally diesel-powered or mechanically powered so there's a bit of oil and pollution going back into the water while they're cleaning.

“Ducks and swans swim away from it. We're not fast enough to catch fish. So it really is a low-impact solution to remove pollution out of the water.”

Image by Steve Bidmead from Pixabay