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Tag: Waste cleaning

WasteShark the new device that removes floating debris from water

The climate emergency is not the only environmental issue the world is struggling to solve. Plastic products clog our oceans, threatening marine life and polluting the water. At current rates plastic is predicted to outweigh all the fish in the sea by the year 2050. In Holland, a new device is a small sign of hope. ‘WasteShark’ is a remotely controlled device that collects rubbish from the water.

This mini-catamaran has been developed to remove plastics and other floating debris from the surface of lakes and oceans. Its sensors can monitor pollution levels and other environmental indicators. It is electrically powered, emission-free and can collect hundreds of kilos of rubbish at a time. Richard Hardiman is the founder of Ranmarine Technologies, the company responsible for Waste Shark:

“What we’re trying to do is create a small enough vessel that will get into tight spaces where waste collects, particularly in the harbours and the ports, and stop all that waste being taken out into the greater ocean.

“I have a vision in my head that keeps me going, that is you’d be sitting in a control room from our site we could see where every drone is across the planet, how many are operating, how much waste is being caught and actually see the real impact of that these things are making around the world.”

This is one of the projects that received support from the European funds allocated to making plastic circular. Ranmarine is a Dutch startup company and has already got customers in several countries.

Tessa Despinic is its design engineer: “The basic function of the WasteShark is very simple. It just swims around and collects trash from the surface. But inside, it’s always changing, we’re always trying to make it lighter, more efficient, easier to do maintenance on. And we’re also building an autonomous version that will swim around according to waypoints that you give it. So we’re always working on that and making it better.”

Read the full article by Euro News article

Drone ‘shark’ that eats plastic goes live in UK waters

The WasteShark is an autonomous marine drone and is the first designed specifically to eat waste.  Its shape is inspired by the whale shark and it can remove 1kg (2.3lb) of waste per minute and last for eight hours at a time.

The device is making its UK debut in Ilfracombe harbour, in Devon, on Monday, after operating successfully in five countries, including South Africa and United Arab Emirates.

It runs on a by a rechargeable battery and will capture up to 160 litres of waste at a time, including plastics and microplastics.

It can also extract oils and pest plants such as algae and duckweed.

The plastic waste will be turned into pellets that will be used to make products such as kayaks.

Created by RanMarine Technology, the WasteShark is designed to be harmonious with the environment and it causes no harm to wildlife. GPS points are programmed into the drone to ensure that it covers hot-spots where waste gathers. It can also collect important data about the marine environment.

WWF and Sky Ocean Rescue are launching the WasteShark as part of their work to improve Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). These areas include precious habitats and the species within them, and are under serious threat from issues including plastic and pollution.

Ilfracombe harbour lies within the Bideford to Foreland Point MPA, home to a number of important species and diverse habitats, including rocky reefs, honeycomb worms, pink sea fans and the charismatic spiny lobster. The area is also regularly visited by seabirds and cetaceans including the elusive harbour porpoise.

Lundy Island, home to some of the UK’s most diverse and incredible wildlife, including species of conservation importance like grey seals, lies just 12 miles off the coast.

The device is being tested in the UK at Ilfracombe harbour

Jenny Oates, UK SEAS Programme Manager at WWF, said: “The WasteShark will help us fight the waste that enters the harbour, snapping it up before the tide takes it out to sea and it ends up threatening wildlife in other precious marine areas.

“There’s no doubt we need to see major systemic change when it comes to single-use plastic. As we strive to get governments and businesses to commit to turning off the plastic tap, there is an important role for innovative technology to remove it from our seas.”

Read the full article by Sky News article

WasteShark, the plastic-eating drone

WasteShark, the plastic-eating drone

Richard Hardiman, the accidental environmentalist, speaks honestly about his entrepreneurial journey, discovering a passion for drones and plastic recycling he never dreamed of, and how the creative, entrepreneurial side lies in each of us- waiting to be unleashed.

RanMarine Technology B.V. have just launched WasteShark, their first product. These fully autonomous drones swim through the water, collecting waste and other non-biodegradables, whilst gathering data about the environment.

Q: What’s unique or innovative about RanMarine Technology?

Waste removal and plastic recycling is not a ‘sexy’ subject but when you start using drones in water to start reducing the negative effects of pollution, that generally sparks a conversation, not only about just how bad pollution in our oceans has gotten, but how cool the future of technology really is.

Our products are unique but I think our innovation and understanding of what the future needs are our most differentiating aspects.

Q: What inspired you to start?

A few years ago, I was watching two men in a boat cleaning out an area of water with a pool net; a small and relatively ineffective pool net and the inefficiency in that process just drove me mad, especially given the amount of trash they were trying to collect with that net.

I started playing around with the idea of automated scoops to pick this up and filter the plastic out, eventually, I narrowed it down to USV’s (Unmanned Surface Vehicles/Vessels) and how we could use drone technology to automate this plastic collection.

As with any idea that speaks to current problems, everyone I spoke to about this solution got very excited, but an idea is one thing, committing to it and creating something that has never been done before is quite another.

“Eventually, I built a prototype in my garage; it was made of plumbers piping Arduino boards and some bilge pumps to act as motors – I put it all together with some crudely written code and tested the prototype in my pool; despite my skills, it worked!”

From there I joined an Accelerator (portxl.org) in Rotterdam and found new partners and investment and we have been building ever since.

Q: What’s your biggest achievement to date?

It may sound odd but the fact that we created a business from scratch, which was based on the idea of “what if”, and turned that into something that has a demand globally…that to me is pretty big. It sounds like a linear process, you have an idea, build a prototype, find investment and create a product, but the journey is far harder and path far more winding than that – we created something that never existed before and that always pleases me.

Q: What’s your plans for the next 6 months or year?

Our next two months is totally focussed on market readiness; we have a number of drones out in the field right now (The Netherlands, USA, Africa and India) been tested by launching customers and partners with a view to refining the requirements, usability and tweaking any parts of the software and hardware for customer-readiness. Along with this, we are into scale-up mode on our production lines and logistics into our launching markets; 2018 is the year we started sending our first product The WasteShark around the globe, so internally we are focused on making these steps as simple as possible. Parallel to this, we are working on our next two products, so its all systems go.

Q: What do you wish you’d known at the beginning? Has inspiration come from unexpected places?

I knew nothing about drones, maritime or even the huge problem that is plastic waste before I saw those two men in a boat with their net; My inspiration came from trying to solve a problem of inefficacy in a process, as many new innovations do – if you had asked me three or four years ago did I think I would be doing what I am doing now I would have laughed…but that’s because inspiration and innovation do come from the most unlikely of places and send you on a path that you can’t always predict, but that’s half the fun.

If we had to start over again there would, of course, be things I would change, decisions, partnerships or development paths that you would not have taken, but these are all learning processes, you try your best not to make the same mistake twice but quite often you do anyway. Part of being an entrepreneur is having the tenacity to live with your mistakes, choices and the constant threat of failure and learning to adapt to that and continue going forward.

“…If you had asked me three or four years ago did I think I would be doing what I am doing now I would have laughed…”

Is there a particular moment where you had to rethink things?

There have been many moments! Oddly though never one of giving up – with anything new and untested you invariably come up against problems that you thought would be simple to solve and become almost show-stoppers to the project, but I am big on solutions, you can find problems everywhere in life…I prefer that if I am shown a problem I am also given one or two possibilities on how we intend to solve the problem; too often we use a problem to mean that we no longer have to work or think, that is just lazy.

It is going well now but that doesn’t mean that problems do not arise, we are a small and growing team and we are working well together, but with a problem the size of the one we are trying to help solve, roadblocks and problems occur every day; its just how you manage your way around or through them.

Read the full article by Trvst article

Fleets Of Wasteshark ‘Aquadrones’ Could Be Cleaning Ocean Waste In The Future

A swarm of autonomous robots that can swim across bodies of water to collect garbage might be the key to saving the oceans.  A few years ago, RanMarine Technology, a company from the Netherlands, has introduced WasteShark, an aquadrone that works like a smart vacuum cleaner (essentially, a Roomba for the seas) to gather wastes that end up in waterways before they accumulate into a great big patch in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Wall-E On Water

Every year, about 1.4 billion pounds of trash end up in the ocean. Plastics, styrofoam, and other nonbiodegradable materials get dumped into the waters, eaten by fishes and birds or collect into what has become the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — a gyre of debris between California and Hawaii bigger than Alaska.

Trash in seas and oceans have become a huge problem, but the WasteShark might be able to help.

RanMarine said that its aquadrones are inspired by whale sharks, “nature’s most efficient harvesters of marine biomass.” The company claims that the vessels can collect up to 200 liters of waste before it needs to be emptied and swim across the water for 16 hours.

The WasteShark are autonomous as it can intelligently wade through water and collect trash using sensors. It is equipped with a GPS to track its movements.

Read the full article by Tech Times article

Sir Robert Syms Opposes Plastic Pollution

Today our Poole MP, Sir Robert Syms, performed the first UK launch of a drone called WasteShark that collects floating plastic and other rubbish so that it can be removed and recycled. Robert used the occasion to give an interview for BBC Radio Solent in which he described the importance of keeping out local waters free of plastic pollution, which can endanger wildlife and spoil Poole Harbour unless we remain vigilant.

The WasteShark drone can either be steered by a handheld joystick or run in autonomous mode, either around a set course or within a set perimeter. It runs silently and safely on rechargeable batteries and includes collision avoidance software. It can hold up to a third of a ton of rubbish before it needs to be emptied and it poses no threat to marine life. At the same time, the drone can serve as a platform for a variety of sensors to measure water quality, temperature and so on.

On behalf of RanMarine Technology, Oliver Cunningham (pictured above) introduced Robert to the WasteShark drone and explained its featured and benefits on BBC Radio Solent before Robert launched the drone into Poole Harbour (picture above). The company vision is that the drones can work steadily in coastal waters worldwide, doing their bit to solve the plastic pollution problem, piece by piece.

The vision is that WasteShark drones can work steadily in urban and coastal waters worldwide, doing their bit to solve the plastic pollution problem, and supporting evidence-based management of Smart Cities.

Read the full article by Poole Conservatives article