AUSTRALASIA FOCUS
AUTOMATIC WATERWAY CLEANING SOLUTION
Credit: Port of Brisbane
A Solar Powered Automatic River Cleaner (SPARC) trial at the Port of Brisbane has been accepted into the IAPH World Ports Sustainability Program’s Sustainability Awards, explains Dave MacIntyre
The project led by the Port of Brisbane’s not-for-profit environmental partner Ocean Crusaders seeks to develop a safer and more sustainable way to collect rubbish from the Brisbane River and prevent it from travelling into Moreton Bay – an area of high ecological significance. The SPARC is designed for major rivers where debris travels in the current. Floating booms alongside the SPARC capture rubbish and hydro and solar power turn a conveyor belt that lifts the debris out of the water and places it into a rubbish bin, ready for removal. The full bin can be floated to shore, lifted onto a truck and removed, while a new bin is floated in. It collects rubbish 24/7 in a safer and more sustainable way than manual litter collections. With debris removed from the water there is no risk to wildlife and no risk of the rubbish escaping. Clean up The Port of Brisbane, along with other backers, has supported the SPARC trial through its Community Grant Program and Employee Volunteering Program, building on the port’s long relationship with Ocean Crusaders to support their work in cleaning up waterways. The development and trial of the SPARC unit bought together stakeholders from across the Brisbane community, government, industry and local businesses who provided funding, technical expertise and construction work. Many local suppliers provided parts and products to enable the development of the prototype. The project was delivered in two stages, the first of which was a clean-up campaign to understand litter deposition in the area and provide baseline data to support further assessments of the unit.
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8 The hydro and solar-Powered SPARC unit
The second stage included the design and construction of the SPARC unit and subsequent in-water trials. It is now performing well near the Brisbane International Cruise Terminal, at the mouth of the river. Local solution Ian Thomson, Founder/Managing Director of Ocean Crusaders, created the organisation in 2010. He told Greenport: “I saw turtles dying in the Whitsundays because of plastic ingestion and suffocation. I sailed solo around Australia to break a world record and raise awareness of the need to get rid of single-use plastics. “Smashing the record by 24 days, I then used that profile to educate youth. In 2016 we decided we needed to actually do the cleaning as everyone was educating and no one was doing anything about the issue of the plastics out there. “We have since grown to be Australia’s premier waterway cleaning team, removing on average of 145 tonnes of debris from waterways across the Eastern Seaboard of Australia, removed from mangroves, rock walls and beaches, usually where people don’t go, but rubbish frequents and poses the greatest threat to our wildlife.” Mr Thomson says Ocean Crusaders looked at units around the world but with price tags well into the millions, a local solution was needed for smaller waterways – “A conveyor was the obvious choice and powering it using tidal flow was logical.” He says the partnership with the Port of Brisbane has been growing for four years and the port was active in securing a grant from IFM Investors to help with the build and trial of the unit. The port has continued to fund its maintenance. It is hoped the project will lead to the development and placement of additional SPARC units in both Brisbane River and the broader Southeast Queensland catchment.
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