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Climate and Environment

Meet The Trash Interceptor Called 007 That Is Working To Clean Up The Mess From This Storm

By  Tiffany Ujiiye
Published Mar 24, 2023 2:20 PM
A boat with a curved front and flat back has a series of openings along the side
Ballona Creek's 007 trash interceptor is now working on the trash from the latest storm.
Courtesy Business Wire)
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Topline:

Los Angeles County's Trash Interceptor 007 is experiencing its first winter storm season and it's on a mission to collect tons of floating trash from Ballona Creek near Playa del Rey.

Why it matters: This month alone, the solar-powered barge swallowed about 5 1/2 tons of garbage. That brings its total to more than 60 tons of debris collected since October — which is more than what the county estimates typically flows out of rivers and streams annually and into the ocean.

Why now: The "exceptional" amount of trash comes after three years of drought, according to Kerjon Lee of the county's public works department. Lee told us:

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"So what you have is a cleansing of the system or a purging of the system and if we don't catch it it often ends towards the ocean."

What's next: The stuff collected by the trash inceptor then gets offloaded and sorted for recycling. The device is being paid for and tested during a two-year pilot program by the Dutch nonprofit The Ocean Clean-Up.

See how it works:

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