A trash-collecting machine powered by a water wheel and solar panels has prevented hundreds of tonnes of plastic and other garbage from Panama from littering mangroves and the ocean.
All kinds of trash flow down rivers running through Panama City and end up on the coastline of the Central American nation.
To combat the pollution, the nonprofit Marea Verde Foundation installed a machine called Wanda two years ago to collect and separate trash for recycling.
Photo: AFP
“We’ve captured 256,000 kilos of waste that would be in the mangroves and sea if it had not been for Wanda,” said Laura Gonzalez, the foundation’s executive director.
The garbage is stopped by a barrier across the Juan Diaz River that runs through Panama City before several workers separate the waste, which is sent by a long conveyor belt to a huge container to be recycled.
Wanda also has solar panels in case the hydropower system that harnesses the energy of the river current fails.
No other river in Panama has a similar system, so tonnes of garbage continue to reach the sea.
The country’s coastal mangroves are a vital resting place for hundreds of thousands of migratory birds, but pollution and urban growth pose a serious threat.
Uncollected garbage litters the streets and residential areas of Panama City and its surrounding areas, while on the coast, there are piles of all kinds of waste.
Panamanian Minister of the Environment Juan Carlos Navarro in July called the state of the rivers an “environmental disaster.”
“We cannot continue polluting our rivers and seas,” Navarro said.
The trash captured by Wanda includes plastic bottles, shampoo containers and soccer balls.
“It’s crazy. We received a plastic unicorn a few days ago,” Gonzalez said.
There are eight other similar facilities around the world, including one in Baltimore, Maryland, but Wanda is the only one of its kind in Latin America, Marea Verde said.
It began operating in September 2022 and captured about 120 tonnes of waste in its first year.
However, the amount of trash dumped in the river continues to increase.
“This year we will probably exceed what we collected in the first year,” Gonzalez said.
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