aquatic trash skimmer – Aquarius-Systems

The City of Tampa Welcomes its New Trash Hunter®

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 20:16:25 +0000

Mayor Jane Castor christened Tampa’s newest addition Saturday morning with the ceremonial breaking of a champagne bottle across the boat’s bow.

Named the “Litter Skimmer,” this Aquatic Trash Skimmer will remove marine debris from the waterways in the City of Tampa as part of the Mayors “Keep it Clean, Tampa” initiative.

This custom debris skimmer boat is built with a stainless steel hull, twin hydraulic props, joystick controls, a water cannon, and air conditioned dual cabs that hydraulically raise and lower in order navigate under lower bridges.

How Aquarius Systems Helps Fight Water Pollution

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 21:01:38 +0000

While the true solution to curb the pollution problem lies in several areas such reducing the single-use plastic items as well as better recycling programs. However, Aquarius Systems does offer a Solution to the Pollution that plagues rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and other waterways; it is an Aquatic Trash Skimmer.

Marine debris is not a new problem, but there is a growing awareness to the pollution problem. Aquarius Systems has been skimming trash long before it became such a cause for alarm. In 1974, officials in Venice, Italy, needed a way to remove the floating debris from the canals, which was openly used as a dumpster. An Aquatic Weed Harvester was modified with collection wings and a few other upgrades and what we like to call the Trash Hunter, was exported to Venice.

The Pollution Solution

Fri, 25 Feb 2022 20:00:22 +0000

Experts say that by 2050 there may be more plastic than fish in the sea. It is found in every region of the world, from the deepest ocean trenches to the most remote islands.

Over 300 million tons of plastic are produced each year and at least 14 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean annually; making up 80% of all marine debris found in surface waters. And the problem is continues to grow!

As recently as ten years ago, when the pollution problem was already huge, there was little global awareness and even less of a movement to stop the problem. Although you may not have read about plastic pollution or microplastics or The Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the news, others were aware of the issues and were utilizing Aquarius Systems’ equipment to scoop the debris from rivers, lakes and reservoirs.

Back in the mid-1970’s, officials in Venice, Italy, needed a way to remove the floating debris from the canals, which were openly used as a dumpster. An Aquatic Weed Harvester was modified with collection wings and a few other upgrades. The resulting machine, that we like to call the Trash Hunter, was exported to Venice.

In the mid-1970s, Aquarius Systems produced the very first Aquatic Trash Skimmer for use in Venice to remove floating debris from the canals.

The Trash Hunter is the first-of-its-kind boat designed for the sole purpose of collecting and removing floating debris from surface water. This development gave birth to the state-of-the-art Marine Debris Skimmers produced today. The modern machines have been re-engineered from the original rudimentary design to feature a catamaran hull for stability, adjustable collections flares to enable operators to capture floating items and clean out tight corners, and an onboard conveyor containment system to retain, dewater and unload the debris.

Aquatic Trash Skimmers use adjustable collection flares to trap floating debris and enable the operator to remove trash from tight corners.

Rivers are the main source of plastic contamination found in the oceans. It originates from land-based debris found in urban and stormwater runoff, littering, inadequate waste disposal and management, industrial activities and illegal dumping. Rivers, and the floating debris fed into them, flow into the ocean. The mobile Aquarius Systems’ Aquatic Trash Hunters are used on many rivers, skimming to capture and remove the floating debris and offloaded it into shore-based dumpsters.

April 25, 2013 Photos of the MMSD river skimmer collecting trash and tree branches and other debris from the Milwaukee River downtown. Here the skimmer unloads at a dump site on the Kinnickinnic River where the debris can be hauled away by truck. Debris goes into a dumpster via this ramp operated from the boat. MICHAEL SEARS/MSEARS@JOURNALSENTINEL.COM

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District has cleaned and maintained the Milwaukee river system within the inner harbor area of Lake Michigan with a river skimmer boat for over 20 years. Their current vessel, the Lynyrd Skymmr Aquatic Trash Hunter, is 50-feet long and scoops up tree trunks, branches, plastic containers, trash, road construction barrels, tires, and dead fish. In 2017, the river skimmer boat worked on Milwaukee waterways for 128 days, collecting 1,545 cubic yards of debris. That’s enough to fill over 77 commercial-size 20-yard dumpsters.

Can you visualize 1,545 cubic yards? I couldn’t either, but a little research revealed that a washing machine is a little smaller in size than a cubic yard. Milwaukee pulled 1,545 cubic yards; which is like removing 1,545 washing machines from the inner harbor area — and preventing that debris from entering Lake Michigan.

A washing machine is just under one cubic yard.

The Lower Passaic River is one of the most polluted waterways in the United States. The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission uses a skimmer boat to sweep floatables from a ten-mile stretch of the Passaic River, garbage which would otherwise reach the Atlantic Ocean. The skimmer boat which acts like a street sweeper for the river removes floating debris such as trees, plastic bags, plastic bottles, soccer balls, etc.

The program, which started in 1998, has collected about 372 tons (744,000 pounds) of trash and debris annually. Imagine having to move 744,000 gallons of paint comparison! That is the amount of trash being pulled from the river. Forty percent of the garbage removed from the river is plastic, most of which is plastic bottles.

A global solution to the source needs to be found, whether it is a ban on single-use plastic, better recycling, or investing in proper waste management operation. And for nearly 50 years Aquarius Systems Aquatic Trash Skimmer has been part of the Pollution Solution!

See the Passaic Valley Trash Skimmer in Action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ4va2mLrHc

Learn More about Aquatic Trash Skimmers

Aquarius Systems has been producing boats to remove floating debris from rivers, lakes and other waterways since the mid-1970s.

Aquarius Trash Skimmer Boats Remove 20 Tons of Floating Debris From the Ganga River

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 15:03:37 +0000

Two Aquarius Systems’ Aquatic Trash Skimmer boats were deployed to remove floating materials from the Ganga River at Sangam, India. Plastic bags, bottles, cans, food packets and coconuts among other items are dumped in the river by humans.

The Trash Hunters removed about 20 tons of water materials without four hours. The plan is to put the machines into service for 8 – 10 hours each day so that the cleaning of the Ganga could be done effectively.

The river debris skimmer boats collect floating waste through conveyors, stores it on board and then travels to the shore to unload the waste which is then transported to the dumping site. The skimmer boats are fitted with paddle wheels that allow it to travel in the water and help to aerate the water by churning it up.

DC Water Launches Two New Trash Hunter Boats to Clean the Anacostia River

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 20:16:22 +0000

Two new Trash Hunters launched by DC Water this week will help scoop up floating trash and debris from the Anacostia River, making the waterways cleaner and more enjoyable.

These boats a big investment by DC Water to reclaim our rivers. They will literally be pulling tons of trash out of the Anacostia and Potomac rivers as we continue to improve the health of each river while reacquainting our community with how beautiful – and important – these waterways are.

DC Water pioneered the skimmer boat cleaning process back in 1992. The program has been an enormous success, with 300-500 tons of trash removed from the waterways of the District of Columbia every year.

Heavy Rains No Match for Trash Skimmers

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 21:56:00 +0000

In the 1970’s a group of private property owners dammed the Middle Raccoon River to form Lake Panorama. When the river rises, either due to heavy rain or snow melt not only does the excess water drain into the lake, but so does the debris the rushing waters carry. The debris mostly consists of organic material such as leaves, logs and branches which can damage boats and piers as well as cause navigational hazards.

In the 1990’s barriers were put in place to stop the debris from entering the lake, but not all debris is captured as openings for boat traffic allow the debris to escape. In 1999, the lake association purchased an aquatic trash skimmer to collect the debris from the barrier as well as coves around the lake where the escaped debris can settle.

We are happy to say, the lake association celebrated 2020 with a new and improved aquatic trash skimmer. This new skimmer holds three times the debris and is quite a bit faster. The additional speed is welcome as boat can be deployed and collect escaped debris before it can scatter all over the lake.

The first machine will be retained to use as a backup.