Islands from waste

Responding to the ever present problem of plastic waste clogging waterways, the Audi Environmental Foundation, in collaboration with partner Recycled Island Foundation, is looking at one way to curb and ultimately deal with the problem. 

The Audi Environmental Foundation is an active promoter of research into new technologies and scientific methods to help create a better future. Like most good ideas, this solution is simple enough in concept and execution. The collaboration uses collection basins located in rivers and ports to capture the floating plastic waste before it makes its way out to sea. More than 98 percent of the waste floats in the first metre below the water’s surface, with most of it just below the surface in the first half metre. This makes it possible to collect the waste in nets with specially designed catch basins that prevent it from being washed back out of the collecting basins by wave motion.

Once collected, the waste is fashioned into hexagonal plastic islands using various techniques such as pressing, welding and 3D printing. These are intended to sustainably improve the habitat for the local residents, as well as for the fish and other aquatic creatures in the river.

The first floating park made of plastic waste was opened recently at the Port of Rotterdam by Rüdiger Recknagel, Director of the Audi Environmental Foundation. The group of plastic islands in Rotterdam is made up of individual ‘islands’ each measuring five square metres. These have an open structure through which the plants’ roots grow, resulting in a thick intermeshing of roots under the water. This pilot project has an overall surface area of 140 square metres and can accommodate plants, mosses or even small tress on their surface, while beneath the waterline, they are the perfect place for algae and other aquatic plants to flourish – serving as a source of food for river creatures. 

The islands are movable and therefore highly versatile in use and can be used as a relaxing place to retreat for lunch breaks as is the case in Rotterdam. On a large scale they could even be used as a stage or auditorium for open-air concerts directly at the port.

The project is simple and inexpensive to put into practice and could easily be adopted in any area where floating plastic waste is an issue. Other locations are already being planned in Europe, with collecting basins being installed in the Charleroi Canal in Brussels this year and even on the Indonesian island of Ambon to see if the project can gain traction globally.