(Denpasar) The NGO The SeaCleaner founded by navigator Yvan Bourgnon started a campaign against plastic pollution at sea in Bali this week with the Mobula 8, a new depollution boat.
The Franco-Swiss navigator says he discovered the extent of plastic pollution at sea while passing off the Indonesian tourist island during a world tour in 2014.
“When I returned to Europe, I decided to found the NGO The SeaCleaners,” he explained in an interview with AFP on Tuesday. “The goal was to provide this type of boat to ensure that we can collect plastic at sea”.
“The Mobula 8 is a purpose-built boat that can collect up to 1,000 tonnes of plastic per year.”
It is the first model of Mobula, a pollution control boat built by Efinor in Paimpol (Côtes-d’Armor), to be deployed worldwide.
The almost 9 by 4 meter boat has a suction tool to attract plastic waste, microplastics, and also some liquid pollutants.
In Bali, the boat will be deployed as a priority in estuaries, rivers, ports and mangroves, to collect plastic waste before it is taken to the high seas.
More than 80% of plastic pollution at sea comes from land via rivers and the phenomenon is particularly worrying in Southeast Asia, due to a lack of adequate collection and treatment of waste.
The Balinese waste collection association Sungaï Watch estimates that around 33,000 tonnes of plastic pass through Bali’s rivers each year, or 90 tonnes per day.
The SeaCleaner plans to deploy several such boats in Indonesia and other Asian countries.