{"id":316178,"date":"2026-05-14T23:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T23:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/316178\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T23:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T23:05:13","slug":"this-garbage-barge-might-be-southern-californias-most-impressive-boat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/316178\/","title":{"rendered":"This Garbage Barge Might Be Southern California\u2019s Most Impressive Boat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

The Ocean Cleanup Interceptor 007 on Ballona Creek in Marina Del Rey<\/p>\n

The Ocean Cleanup<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time it rains, it\u2019s a natural disaster,\u201d said James Patterson, Los Angeles operations director for The Ocean Cleanup<\/a>. That\u2019s because so much trash is inadvertently washed from the hills, through valleys and into the city\u2019s rivers that it ends up as tons of trash dumped onto beaches and into the ocean.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine that a region that so badly needs the rain is actually strangled by the result, but that\u2019s just what happens: Storms wash trash into tributaries, creeks and rivers, sending it downstream to end up on the beach or washing out to sea. <\/p>\n

Until recently, the only solution was to pick up the trash by hand or with heavy machinery, either way a slow go. Then, in 2013 a Dutch aerospace student named Boyan Slat<\/a> came up with an idea: Since most ocean trash is delivered to the sea via storm-swollen rivers, why not catch the trash at the mouth of the river?<\/p>\n

He began his pursuit, eventually coming up with a catamaran-style barge, called the Interceptor, a solar-powered, automated collection barge that anchors at a river\u2019s mouth. Floating barriers extend from either side to the shore, culling the trash while allowing water and wildlife to pass through. The Interceptor sucks in trash and deposits it in large bins that, once full, are shipped off for appropriate disposal\u2014and in an interesting twist, an afterlife as material for new car production<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Boyan Slat presenting at the Long Beach Aquarium with a photo of trash at Seal Beach after a storm, illustrating the need for The Ocean Clean Up<\/p>\n

Scotty ReissReadying For The 2028 Olympics\u2014And Open Water Swimming<\/p>\n

After a successful three-year run in Marina Del Rey\u2019s Ballona Creek, The Ocean Cleanup<\/a> announced a new partnership with the city of Los Angeles to add more Interceptors to the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers. The project, estimated to have an eventual price tag in the collective $20-million-plus range, has been championed by mayors of the region\u2019s beach cities, including Long Beach and Seal Beach.<\/p>\n

But the bigger goal is to ensure clean water for the upcoming 2028 Olympics, which will be hosted in Los Angeles. Past games in Rio De Janeiro and Paris came under fire for sending athletes into polluted water. That is an embarrassment Los Angeles doesn\u2019t want or need. But the longer view is more pragmatic: improving the environment for residents, visitors and wildlife.<\/p>\n

The Interceptor 007 on California’s Ballona Creek<\/p>\n

Scotty ReissThe Best Day On The Ocean \u2026 Is On A Garbage Barge?<\/p>\n

The Ocean Cleanup\u2019s Interceptor 007 floats quietly at the mouth of Ballona Creek, gently bobbing with the tide. These days, the 007 sits idle while schools of fish nibble at the algae that grows on its barriers. But when rain is in the forecast, Patterson and his team get to work. Divers and engineers ensure its barriers and machinery are ready for the onslaught, which can amount to tons of trash washed into the Interceptor\u2019s catch basin filter. As trash makes its way downstream, monitors are on hand to ensure the conveyor system works as expected, stopping it to extract things that might be too big for the system. Patterson reports mattresses, coolers, even a scooter, have been scooped up by the Interceptor on Ballona Creek.<\/p>\n

Idle days, however, are ideal for Patterson to show off the Interceptor. Boarding a small skiff at the California Yacht Club, it\u2019s a quick 15 minute trip just around the Marina Del Rey jetty where the Interceptor sits a hundred yards from the creek\u2019s westernmost bridge, a bike path.<\/p>\n

Climbing aboard the 79-foot long Interceptor is a bit disarming. It smells like trash baking in the sun. Overhead solar panels provide shade for visitors and the open deck allows the breeze to flow. The 007\u2019s collection bins sit at the center of the barge, just past the conveyor belt that deposits collected trash onto a moving conveyor that moves back and forth to deposit it into the bins. The system has collected more than 386,000 pounds of trash in its three years on Ballona Creek, more than double initial estimates.<\/p>\n

While the Interceptor, which is so large it can be seen from the flight path at nearby Los Angeles International Airport, is perhaps at its most impressive when it\u2019s doing its duty, barriers holding back tons of garbage while clean water ebbs on the other side. This is a more common site in The Ocean Cleanup\u2019s locations in Guatemala, Jamaica, Indonesia, Panama, India and others.<\/p>\n

Aboard the Interceptor 007, trash collection bins at its center, solar panels overhead<\/p>\n

Scotty Reiss30 City Initiative Adds Interceptors And Learning<\/p>\n

The announcement of additional collection barges in Los Angeles is just part of the larger 30 Cities Program<\/a> that will introduce Interceptors to collect and dispose of trash that currently either clogs waterways or washes into the ocean. The organization says that just 1,000 of the world\u2019s rivers are responsible for 80% of waterway pollution.<\/p>\n

Unlike Los Angeles, the goals of the cities in the 30 City Project are more than cleaning up recreational areas; restoring natural habitats for fish and the economies that depend on the water are critical to the populations that live near the water. Improved habitats and the resurgence of marine life is another of the benefits The Ocean Cleanup has seen in its 13 years; as waterways have become cleaner, marine life has bounced back.<\/p>\n

But the organization has other goals as well, including building a database of information using trackers, sensors, cameras and drones to not just clean the water, but prevent the issue at its start and to address larger issues that don\u2019t yet have mountable solutions, such as the growing problem of microplastics in the water.<\/p>\n

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – JANUARY 10: Kia EV9 battery electric full size suv interior on display at the AutoSalon on January 10, 2025 in Brussels, Belgium. (Photo by Sjoerd van der Wal\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Getty ImagesThe Afterlife of Recovered Ocean Plastics<\/p>\n

Kia, a sponsor of The Ocean Cleanup, has found that its support of the organization presented a dual-pronged opportunity. The company values the chance to support the communities where its employees and stakeholders live and work, said Eric Watson, vice president of sales operations at Kia America. <\/p>\n

But the company also realized another outcome of the collected trash and data it presented: it could reclaim many of those plastics and use them for new car interiors, including upholstery, floor mats and interior details like piping and reflectors. This a vastly different outcome than those sought by Los Angeles and other cities, but still, very valuable. A second life for plastics in cars means a reduced use of other resources, less waste and lighter-weight cars that are overall more efficient. And it\u2019s a win all around: an intentional benefit to an unintentional problem. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ocean Cleanup Interceptor 007 on Ballona Creek in Marina Del Rey The Ocean Cleanup \u201cEvery time it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,67428,132286,23624,47,132287,10012,132285],"class_list":["post-316178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-clean-water","tag-james-patterson","tag-kia","tag-los-angeles","tag-ocean-plastics","tag-olympics","tag-the-ocean-cleanup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}