How To Prevent Plastics From Reaching Rivers and Oceans

4 methods to prevent plastic pollution

There are many ways to prevent plastics from reaching rivers and oceans (credit: Nick Fewings on Unsplash)

Credit: This article is based on the scientific article “Plastic pollution solutions: emerging technologies to prevent and collect marine plastic pollution” by Emma Schmaltz and colleagues (Full citation and link available at the end of the article)

Preventing is better than healing. This is a well-known saying in Dutch, which also applies to plastic pollution. Plastic that pollutes rivers and oceans can be removed (read more about how in this article), but it is even better to prevent it from reaching our rivers and oceans in the first place. Apart from not using plastic and not littering to prevent plastic pollution, this is how this can be done:

Filtering storm and wastewater

The first way to prevent plastic from reaching rivers and oceans is by using stormwater and wastewater filters. Such filters are attached to the drainage system that deals with waste or stormwater.

An example is the StormX Netting Trash Trap. It looks like a large sock that is put around the exit of a drainage pipe. Plastic stays behind in the sock, while water flows through it. This prevents any trash larger than 5 mm (0.2 inches) to enter rivers.