Bring to Orlando: Mr. Trash Wheel

In Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, sits a solar powered water wheel that’s sole purpose is to remove garbage from the Jones Falls River before it hits the ocean.

Mr. Trash Wheel (Website), as the locals call it, lifts trash and debris from the water and dumps it into a connected dumpster barge that can be switched out once full. The solar panel on the top of the apparatus keeps the creature operating.

Since its launch in 2014, Mr. Trash Wheel has removed over 406 tons of trash from the river. That breaks down to 234,820 plastic bottles, 302, 859 polystyrene containers, 7,209,000 cigarette butts, 4,684 glass bottles, 150,180 grocery bags, and 218,719 chip bags. To see the complete Mr. Trash Wheel collection data, click HERE.

Trash collected by the wheel is incinerated to create electricity.

You can also follow the machine on Twitter, at @mrtrashwheel.

Imagine if we had mini machines like this on our lakes or on the St. John’s River. Or even if we could have one in the Indian River Lagoon.