The Great Bubble Barrier, a Dutch company, has developed a system that places a perforated tube across a riverbed and pumps air through it to generate a vertical curtain of bubbles.
The rising bubbles create an upward current that pushes submerged and floating plastic toward the water surface and guides it diagonally to a catchment area on the riverbank.
Because the barrier consists only of air bubbles, fish can swim through it unimpeded and ships can pass without stopping or altering course.
The company reports that testing has shown the system intercepts 86 percent of plastic waste moving down the river.
The technology targets rivers, which are the primary pathways carrying plastic pollution from land into the ocean.
By capturing waste in rivers, the system aims to prevent it from reaching marine environments where cleanup becomes far more difficult and costly.
The installation requires a compressor on shore and a tube anchored to the riverbed, with the catchment system positioned at the river's edge.
No chemical additives or physical nets are used, and the company says the bubble curtain does not disrupt the river's natural flow or ecology.
The Great Bubble Barrier: bubble curtains are intercepting 86 percent of river plastic
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