Dive Brief:

• A semi-permanent water wheel installed in Baltimore, MD can remove trash from the city's Inner Harbor.
• The $800,000 solar and water-powered wheel can eliminate up to 50,000 pounds of trash from the waterway daily.
• This project is the Waterfront Partnership's answer to cleaning up the polluted harbor. As reported by Baltimore Business Journal, the organization expects the wheel will help reach their goal of creating clean water for recreational use by 2020. The structure is expected to last 15 years.

Dive Insight:

In 2008, the city installed a similar system for waste removal that lasted eight months. Laurie Schwartz, the president of the Waterfront Partnership, told Baltimore Business Journal that the system removed 300,000 pounds of trash from the waterway. Materials collected included 190,000 plastic bottles, 160,000 styrofoam cups, 60,000 plastic bags and over one million cigarette butts. 

This structure is a unique way to remove trash. Since it is powered using solar and water, the wheel appears to be cost-effective, and isn't releasing pollutants into the air. If successful, this model could potentially be adopted in other cities as a way to clean up contaminated waterways.