from James Dyson Is Designing A Giant Vacuum-On-A-Boat To Clean Ocean Trash by Kelly

Fastcoexist has a story on James Dyson’s plans to develop a giant vacuum designed to clean up pollution in our water.

“By skimming a highly concentrated flow of larger sized plastics in polluted rivers, the M.V. Recyclone would effectively mine a major source of the pollution before it reached the sea,” the British engineer explained in an email.

“Large skim nets unfurl from the rollers at its stern and are anchored on each side of the river. Hydraulic winches wind them in and out. The nets face upstream and skim the surface of the river for floating debris. The plastic waste is shredded on board and then different grades of plastic are separated by a huge cyclone–very similar to the way our cyclonic vacuums work,” he said.

Dyson first sketched out the idea for Time, but we asked him for a few more details. Originally, he thought the machine would be more like a “grid” fixed at certain strategic points of the river. But he eventually decided that wouldn’t have the scale or mobility of a boat. Hence the M.V. Recyclone barge.