A company in Rotterdam is turning waste into wonder by recycling plastic wastage and turning it into floating parks to help the environment thrive.
Recycled Island Foundation (RIF), based in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, is an organisation focused on reducing plastic pollution in open waters. They collect floating debris from the New Meuse River using litter traps to prevent the rubbish from reaching the North Sea.
Usable plastic is then extracted, recycled and repurposed into modular hexagonal floating structures.
The structures are filled with soil, plants and a couple of others with circular seating areas. The first section of Rotterdam’s ‘floating park’ that measured 140m2 was launched in July last year and the park will continue to expand as additional floating sections are added.
This won’t be a spot were you can throw a ball for Fido, however, besides being visually pleasing, the floating green structures benefit the city ecologically. They provide a habitat for riverine micro and macro fauna as snails, flatworms, larva, beetles and birds.
According to the Recycled Island Foundation, ‘Birds, fish and micro-organism find food, breeding grounds and shelter in the floating park. A small canal runs through the park about half a metre deep; small fish and birds find shelter here and the space to grow before entering the deeper waters.‘
The floating containers vary in depth and the company envisions larger ones that hold trees. The recent image (below) shows how new plants are flourishing in camparison to the image above, taken in July 2018.
Also read: Biofences: Guatemala’s answer to reducing plastic pollution
The initiative of the Recycled Island Foundation is being undertaken in collaboration with the Rotterdam municipality, and HEBO Maritiemservice (a salvaging company) and the foundation hopes to expand this pilot project to other cities.
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