Quite frankly we’re rather surprised we haven’t heard of Mr. Trash Wheel[1] before. It’s a community project by the Baltimore Waterfront’s Healthy Harbor
program[2] where they are trying to make the harbor both swimmable and fishable by 2020. One of the coolest projects that resonates with us is Mr. Trash Wheel — a waterwheel-powered-trash-collecting-conveyor-belt. Say that 10 times fast!
It was built in early 2014, and according to the latest data it has removed a whopping 160 tons of garbage from the waterway already. Floating buoy-nets direct the garbage floating on top of the water into a narrow passage where the conveyor belt powered by a waterwheel slowly picks up the trash, and then deposits it into a large dumpster on a barge.
In fact, it’s even saved a python[3] from the water too!
The creators are hoping to build another water wheel for the Canton neighborhood, and are currently running a fundraiser.[4] But as one redditor points out[5] — it’d be fun to have a human-sized hamster wheel powering the
trash collector so people could speed up the process — and get some exercise at
the same time.
[via reddit[6]]
Filed under: green hacks[7][image 8][image 9][image 10]
