A simple way to block plastic waste from flowing into the sea

Every minute, 15 tons of plastic waste is dumped into the sea. To contribute to the fight against pollution, a Canadian business partnered with three young Dutch girls to implement a simple and effective solution.

Mario Paris, holding the tablet knocked on the screen. Just like magic, the bubbles from the water suddenly floated up to the other side of the lake and ran to this side to form a water bubble fence that divided the lake surface in half.

He took an empty plastic bottle and threw it into the water. The water bubbles immediately pushed plastic bottles back to shore.

Picture 1 of A simple way to block plastic waste from flowing into the sea
Baby stork gets wrapped together by plastic waste in Basel (Switzerland) - (Photo: Barbara Saladin).

Simple solution, high efficiency

The owner of Canadianpond Limited Liability Company in Québec (Canada) calls it "water bubble curtain".

With this performance, he expects his "water bubble curtain" technology to help prevent plastic waste from polluting the marine environment.

In 2016, Mario Paris read on the Google project "Big water bubble fence" by three young girls in the Netherlands.

The project consists of a bubble-making perforated pipe system that blocks plastic waste into the sea. The project wishes to create a cross-shaped water bubble fence on the river or canal to collect waste.

Using water bubbles will not damage boats and animals or underwater animals like using steel wires.

Mario Paris came into contact with the project team in the Netherlands and explained: "What you want to do is great but using a perforated pipe is not complete. Many people have already tried it, the water is flowing massively. "We have the product, you have to focus on how to apply. We will provide you with the design of the installation."

Picture 2 of A simple way to block plastic waste from flowing into the sea
The performance of "water bubble curtain" of Canadianpond Company - (Photo: La Presse).

Protecting fish channel, swimmer

At first glance, the "water bubble curtain" system is very simple, consisting of only perforated plastic tubes to allow air circulation to form a water bubble.

In fact, Canadianpond Company spent time researching and searching for the type and type of pipes so that the pipes were not choked, even if they were drowned in the mud or stagnant polluted water.

In 2017, the project topic group deployed "water bubble blinds" supplied by Canadianpond on the Ijssel river in the Netherlands to collect plastic bottles, plastic bags and other waste.

In addition to preventing plastic waste from flowing into the sea, Canadianpond's "water bubble curtain" technology is also used to aerate the ice to melt, create noise-preventing walls when performing underwater works to protect marine mammals, collecting oil spills or controlling small fish flows to avoid hydroelectric dams or contaminated areas.

Picture 3 of A simple way to block plastic waste from flowing into the sea
Each year, an average of 8 million tons of plastic waste from the river flows into the sea.In the picture is the polluted water source in Van Nam (China) - (Photo: REUTERS).

Scotland and England and using "water bubble curtains" form a barrier to prevent jellyfish from attaching to fountains that take water from nuclear power plants. Many countries such as Denmark have established "water bubble curtains" to block jellyfish, algae and floating waste in public, port, and beach areas.

Canadianpond was founded 15 years ago, currently employing 51 workers with customers from all over the world.