Litter Traps in Sandakan, Malaysia
Together with our partner Future Alam Borneo, CLEAR RIVERS placed two Litter Traps in Sandakan, Malaysia. The two Litter Traps are prototypes built with local materials and are located in the areas of Berhala Island and Sim Sim water village. With these two prototypes, we are retrieving plastic and collecting data about its quality and characteristics to set up a recycling scheme.
We are learning, exploring, and improving the floating devices to collect plastic from the ocean.
Active in the water for almost a year, the two litter traps have collected almost 1 ton of plastic pollution.
Currently still in the water, despite the negative consequences of the pandemic and several lockdowns that affected the country, the litter traps are still retrieving plastic from the ocean daily.
We are currently working on implementing a durable approach to the litter we retrieve. We want to implement a recycling scheme to recycle the plastic into architectural elements and bricks to improve the housing and living conditions.
So far we have been able to organize a shipping container as future storage and workspace. Future Alam Borneo was able to purchase a machine to experiment with the retrieved plastics and make the first samples.
