litter caught in drainage ways
Julie Hambleton
Julie Hambleton
March 20, 2024 ·  2 min read

City Found a Way to Save Water From Plastic Pollution and We Can Start Doing the Same

A city in Australia went viral on social media for the drainage nets they installed on drains to save water from plastic pollution. They’ve fully outlined the details of the nets so that hopefully, other cities around the world can also implement the project.

Australian Drainage Nets Save Water From Plastic Pollution

Just half an hour south of Perth, Australia, the city of Kwinana installed two drainage nets over drainage pipes in the Henley Nature Reserve. They then installed three more in 2019 and 2020. The goal of the nets is to capture large waste coming off nearby roads and save water from the plastic. The nets went viral on social media, with people around the world wanting their own cities to install them, too. (1)

“We’re still getting up to five telephone enquiries or email enquiries globally a week from Austin, Texas to the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Zambia and New Zealand,” said mayor Carol Adams in 2019. “We’ve had calls from Chile, Brazil, Portugal, many European countries — I’ve even been on a Canadian weather station interview.” (2)

What Are The Nets Catching?

The trash that the nets catch primarily comes from nearby residential roads. The most commonly found items in the nets include (1):

  • Food wrappings
  • Drink bottles
  • Cans
  • Organic waste

The litter collected is properly disposed of and the organic matter is recycled. (2)

“Last winter, the maintenance crew took away 370 kilograms of debris and rubbish that would have gone into bushland reserves.” (2)

Image via City of Kwinana

Read: Woman Finds Way To Recycle Plastic Into Bricks That Are Stronger Than Concrete

Cost And Maintenance

The supply and installation of each net were about $10,000, including the cost of improving access to the nets so they can be emptied. The nets are inspected, cleaned out, and sorted by a two-person team. Between May 2018 and June 2019, the teams emptied the nets 11 times. Each team took about four hours per collection. (1)

Other Environmental Initiatives

Kwinana isn’t the only city getting innovative in its approach to protecting its environment. Cockburn, another city about 20 minutes south of Perth, built the first road in Western Australia made entirely out of recycled plastic. They melted down approximately 40,000 plastic bags to pave a laneway. (2)

“They’re the plastic bags you would get from the supermarket, or any old soft plastics that you may have had from chip packets or bread bags,” said the city’s waste education officer, Nicki Ledger. (2)

The city plans on creating even bigger roads in the future using recycled plastic. (2)

In Barcelona, Spain, they have built a similar net system for catching trash before it ends up in the ocean. So far, their project has prevented over 2.7 tons of waste from entering the waterways. (3)

Hopefully, other cities and countries around the world can take inspiration from these cities and also install projects to save water from plastic waste.

Keep Reading: Paralyzed Man Is Cleaning Plastic From River Goes –And He’s Showered With Gifts to Better His Life

Sources

  1. Drainage nets.” City of Kwinana
  2. Meet the drain sock — a simple pollution solution taking the world by storm.” ABC. Gian De Poloni. June 8, 2019.
  3. These Durable Nets Stop Tons of Garbage From Reaching The Ocean.” Intelligent Living. Andrea D. Steffen. March 20, 2021.