They make a wheel, the Wanda, to catch floating garbage in Latin America

full of plastic, cans and even bags Garbage Organic something r . HuhTrash floating daily through the opaque waters of the Juan Diaz Riverone of the most polluted in Panama City, and that, now, can be caught and Wanda. recycled by,

Wanda, an abbreviation for Wheel and Action, is the first fully sustainable wheel in Latin America and the Caribbean. collect the floating garbage from the riverprevents it from reaching the Gulf of Panama.

Sandy Wettemberg, executive director of the Panamanian NGO Maria Verde, which brought the project to Central American, said, “The ultimate intention is to determine what can be given to give it a second life, and what cannot be properly submitted. ” Country.

The Juan Diaz River is one of the main tributaries that cross the capital of Panama, surrounded by a protected area of ​​mangroves – an ecosystem of vital importance to flora and fauna due to its protective factor against erosion and storms. is- which serves as a home for many types of birds.

“It is one of those that flows into the Gulf of Panama and is one of the most from contaminated wasteWattberg lamented, but insisted that there is “great biodiversity” and “endless life in this river”.

Maria Verde, who has experience in floating garbage collection projects, received funding to bring this first automated garbage collection system to the field through a competition between the Benioff Oceans Initiative and the Coca-Cola Foundation.

The origin of the idea lies in Baltimore, a city in the state of Maryland (USA) by the American engineer John Kellett, who created the “Mr. Trash Wheel”, a good wheel with googly eyes.

The NGO works with a “bob” system in another river in the capital, a floating barrier that trapped about a hundred tons of garbage in a year and a half, although there are “no real numbers or studies” of the amount of waste in Panama, according to Wettemberg. of streams.

It works with renewable energy

With the help of a “bob”, Wanda captures the floating waste and lifts it using a wheel until it is moved to a platform equipped with “high-quality technology” to identify “what can be recycled”. What is and isn’t. That’s how we’ll take advantage of the waste,” Watberg explained.

Wanda works with two types of renewable energyHydro and Solar. It has a semi-oval shape that allows photovoltaic energy to be collected through solar panels.

“The force of the river will give energy to turn on the device and if there is not enough energy from the water, it will collect it from the sun,” he said.

community work

Wanda “has other components”, one scientific and the other social, Wettemberg explained, and explained that it would be possible to get all the information being collected through artificial intelligence cameras.

The data collected will allow Maria Verde to “build a baseline and propose public policies” on the environment.

“And work with the community, (because) neither Wanda nor BoB are long-term solutions, we need people to change their habits, dispose of waste properly, start recycling,” he explained.

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“We will work with surrounding communities to understand the realities, constraints and options so that these technologies do not have to be used and have a cleaner river,” he said.

As such, Wanda is in line with three of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, 13 which refer to action for climate, 14 which refers to underwater life, and 17 – the last one – which refer to other goals. advocates for coalition formation.