Readying For The 2028 Olympics—And Open Water Swimming

After a successful three-year run in Marina Del Rey’s Ballona Creek, The Ocean Cleanup announced a new partnership with the city of Los Angeles to add more Interceptors to the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers. The project, estimated to have an eventual price tag in the collective $20-million-plus range, has been championed by mayors of the region’s beach cities, including Long Beach and Seal Beach.

But the bigger goal is to ensure clean water for the upcoming 2028 Olympics, which will be hosted in Los Angeles. Past games in Rio De Janeiro and Paris came under fire for sending athletes into polluted water. That is an embarrassment Los Angeles doesn’t want or need. But the longer view is more pragmatic: improving the environment for residents, visitors and wildlife.

The Best Day On The Ocean … Is On A Garbage Barge?

The Ocean Cleanup’s Interceptor 007 floats quietly at the mouth of Ballona Creek, gently bobbing with the tide. These days, the 007 sits idle while schools of fish nibble at the algae that grows on its barriers. But when rain is in the forecast, Patterson and his team get to work. Divers and engineers ensure its barriers and machinery are ready for the onslaught, which can amount to tons of trash washed into the Interceptor’s catch basin filter. As trash makes its way downstream, monitors are on hand to ensure the conveyor system works as expected, stopping it to extract things that might be too big for the system. Patterson reports mattresses, coolers, even a scooter, have been scooped up by the Interceptor on Ballona Creek.

Idle days, however, are ideal for Patterson to show off the Interceptor. Boarding a small skiff at the California Yacht Club, it’s a quick 15 minute trip just around the Marina Del Rey jetty where the Interceptor sits a hundred yards from the creek’s westernmost bridge, a bike path.

Climbing aboard the 79-foot long Interceptor is a bit disarming. It smells like trash baking in the sun. Overhead solar panels provide shade for visitors and the open deck allows the breeze to flow. The 007’s collection bins sit at the center of the barge, just past the conveyor belt that deposits collected trash onto a moving conveyor that moves back and forth to deposit it into the bins. The system has collected more than 386,000 pounds of trash in its three years on Ballona Creek, more than double initial estimates.

While the Interceptor, which is so large it can be seen from the flight path at nearby Los Angeles International Airport, is perhaps at its most impressive when it’s doing its duty, barriers holding back tons of garbage while clean water ebbs on the other side. This is a more common site in The Ocean Cleanup’s locations in Guatemala, Jamaica, Indonesia, Panama, India and others.

30 City Initiative Adds Interceptors And Learning

The announcement of additional collection barges in Los Angeles is just part of the larger 30 Cities Program that will introduce Interceptors to collect and dispose of trash that currently either clogs waterways or washes into the ocean. The organization says that just 1,000 of the world’s rivers are responsible for 80% of waterway pollution.

Unlike Los Angeles, the goals of the cities in the 30 City Project are more than cleaning up recreational areas; restoring natural habitats for fish and the economies that depend on the water are critical to the populations that live near the water. Improved habitats and the resurgence of marine life is another of the benefits The Ocean Cleanup has seen in its 13 years; as waterways have become cleaner, marine life has bounced back.

But the organization has other goals as well, including building a database of information using trackers, sensors, cameras and drones to not just clean the water, but prevent the issue at its start and to address larger issues that don’t yet have mountable solutions, such as the growing problem of microplastics in the water.

The Afterlife of Recovered Ocean Plastics

Kia, a sponsor of The Ocean Cleanup, has found that its support of the organization presented a dual-pronged opportunity. The company values the chance to support the communities where its employees and stakeholders live and work, said Eric Watson, vice president of sales operations at Kia America.

But the company also realized another outcome of the collected trash and data it presented: it could reclaim many of those plastics and use them for new car interiors, including upholstery, floor mats and interior details like piping and reflectors. This a vastly different outcome than those sought by Los Angeles and other cities, but still, very valuable. A second life for plastics in cars means a reduced use of other resources, less waste and lighter-weight cars that are overall more efficient. And it’s a win all around: an intentional benefit to an unintentional problem.