It’s a load of harmful rubbish and it’s heading for the open ocean. Plastic bags, drink containers and all manner of other floating rubbish is creating an environmental hazard that threatens the health of the world’s waterways.

In Brussels, the Audi Environmental Foundation and Audi Brussels have been working with the Recycled Island Foundation and the Port of Brussels to create positive change through a number of environmental initiatives, the latest of which involves a specially developed collecting basin which has been deployed in the very Harbour.

This plastic trap is designed so that waste floating in the water is flushed into a net, where retention devices prevent it from being washed out again and stop it reaching the open sea. The port of Brussels is already the third site for the Recycled Island project, following Rotterdam and the Indonesian island of Ambon.
Most of the plastic floating in the sea reaches the oceans via rivers. Carelessly thrown-away garbage gets blown into the water by the wind and has become a worldwide problem. More than 98 percent of waste drifting in water floats in the first metre below the water’s surface, indeed most of it is actually in the first half metre. 

Audi Brussels and the Port of Brussels have taken over project sponsorship for one of these plastic traps and installed it permanently after a successful test phase. The collecting basin was installed in the harbour and is emptied twice a week, on average capturing one cubic meter of plastic waste each month. 

In a bid to raise awareness of the extent of plastic waste, the partners have begun making benches from the collected waste, with one such bench installed at Audi Brussels at the entrance to the plant in order to sensitise employees and visitors to the problem.
Audi Brussels is of course well known for its work on sustainability and an unerring commitment to the environment. Last year, Audi Brussels became the world’s first certified CO2-neutral, high-volume production plant in the premium segment, and is fittingly where the brand’s first all-electric production model – the Audi e-tron – is manufactured.

The Audi Environmental Foundation which was established in 2009, is an active promoter of research into new technologies and scientific methods for a brighter, more sustainable future, focusing in particular on environmentally compatible technologies and environmental education. 

This is all part of the Audi plan for a better, cleaner and sustainable future for all.