The first Interceptor city • Updates • The Ocean Cleanup – GWC Mag

Building these relationships provides benefits to everyone. In order to provide maximum net benefit, we consult and engage with local people before, during and after deployments on the location, intention and impact of our work, ensuring we have advanced and informed buy-in from the people who matter most.

This can also help us operationally. For our deployment at Mountain View Gully, for example, heavy vegetation prevented us excavating (as we usually would) to clear trash and make space for the Interceptor. However, local workers were keen to help and formed a team of (paid) workers to clean up the area manually, making space for Interceptor 013. We continually monitor our local impact – we are also collaborating with the University of the West Indies to study the impact of our intervention on mangroves, which play a vital role in protecting riverbanks and stimulating ecosystems. This on-the-ground collaboration ensures that our impact brings local benefit, as well as contributing to cleaner oceans for the whole planet.

Crucially, a clean Kingston Harbour brings us closer to a clean Caribbean Sea. Our Interceptors, with the invaluable support of our partners in Jamaica, are not only capturing huge amounts of waste and preventing it reaching the oceans; they are fast becoming an inspiring symbol of the solution to the waste management challenges in a range of urban environments. Our research shows that coastal cities around the world are the largest source of plastic emissions into our oceans – and the single fastest way to reduce ocean plastic is to target these emissions, and stop them.

Our interception model has evolved and grown since our early deployments, and our results in Jamaica show huge potential for this city-based setup. We are keen to see how these learnings can be applied in other cities around the world.

KINGSTON: A CITY UNITED

We believe that this collaborative format, built around the impact of our Interceptors not only on trash but also on education, awareness and motivation, is the optimal way forward; both for the communities which make it possible for us to intervene, and for the oceanic, coastal and riverine environments we strive to protect.