NEWS

Trash skimmer traps up to 150 pounds a day

Grant-funded vacuum has been filtering since April

Madeleine List
mlist@providencejournal.com
Max Kraimer, program coordinator for Clean Ocean Access, explains the Fox Point Marina trash skimmer to Katharine Lang, 22, of Hartford.  [The Providence Journal / Madeleine List]

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described 11th Hour Racing as a nonprofit organization.

PROVIDENCE — While patrons eat and drink on The Hot Club’s patio, a machine installed in the water below deck quietly works its magic, removing trash and debris from the Providence River.

“I have been to Hot Club recreationally and didn’t know this was doing its thing below,” said Katharine Lang, 22, of Hartford, as she stood on a dock in the Fox Point Marina on Thursday morning peering at a trash skimmer floating in the water.

The skimmer, installed in April by Clean Ocean Access, a nonprofit that works to remove marine debris and protect coastal areas, sucks in water and filters out debris, collecting between 50 and 150 pounds of trash every day.

Max Kraimer, program coordinator for Clean Ocean Access, brought a group of curious onlookers Thursday to get a closer look at the skimmer and educate them about how it works.

The machine stays stationary but is located in a section of the river — nearly in Providence Harbor — where debris often collects, he said. The 6-by-4-foot skimmer pumps water through doors in its sides and filters out debris, collecting mostly single-use plastic bags, bottles, wrappers and cigarette butts as well as mulch and sticks.

The Hot Club takes charge of emptying the skimmer every day and also pays for the electricity to run it, which costs only about $1 per day, Kraimer said. Since its installation, the skimmer has removed over 1,200 pounds of debris.

The machine cost $12,000 and was paid for with a grant awarded to Clean Ocean Access by 11th Hour Racing, an organization that works with the sailing community and maritime industry to help mitigate ocean pollution.

While removing trash from the water is a major benefit of the skimmer, the research and education aspect is even more important, Kraimer said.  Employees from Clean Ocean Access come once a week to analyze the trash collected by the skimmer. Data collected from the Providence skimmer will be released in the fall.

“The end goal is essentially to rid our oceans of plastic,” Kraimer said. “Even if we stop plastic production today there’s obviously going to be trash that's washing up into the skimmers or onto our beaches for years to come. But it’s really about engaging the community and having the community switch to durables.”

Even more important than cleaning up trash, is trying to reduce the creation of that waste in the first place, said Elsa Rohm, a summer intern with the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council who helps with educational outreach for the trash skimmer program.

Everyone can do their part by trying to use as many reusable materials as possible and reduce the amount of trash they throw out, she said. It’s important to recycle all recyclable materials, but better yet, Rohm said, try not to use them in the first place.

“Refusing single-use plastic is a big one, refusing straws, bringing your own cups, bringing your own grocery bags, anything like that,” she said. “Re-using what you already have. Sometimes you’re just caught unaware, but it’s being really conscious about how much trash you're producing.”

  — mlist@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @madeleine_list