Tampa’s ‘Litter Skimmer’ Garbage Boat Addresses a Growing Problem
As plastic builds up in rivers and bays, municipalities across the country are looking for creative, affordable solutions to keep their waterways clean. Many have turned to “garbage skimmers,” boats designed to dispose of garbage.
Tampa, Fla., is one of the newest cities to invest in such a vessel, a $565,000 boat it has dubbed the “Litter Skimmer.” It shaves plastic and other single-use waste — as well as organic material such as branches and leaves — out of the water and onto a conveyor belt that pulls it into a storage area, a city spokesman said.
The boat debuted about a year ago and has since collected about 13 tons of debris, said Alexis Black, an environmental specialist with Tampa’s Department of Solid Waste and Environmental Program Management.
As early as the 1950s, scientists warned of marine life got stuck in discarded fishing gear and other types of plastic waste. Since then, the consumption of single-use plastics has increased to the point where tens of millions of tons of plastic end up in the oceans every year. Over the years, plastics have damaged local ecosystems and disrupted stormwater management, leading to flooding.
The skimmer is just one method Tampa uses to remove waste from local waters. The city also organizes community clean-up events along the waterways and in the parks, using tools such as baffles and nets to prevent debris from leaving drains and entering the river.
“The introduction of Litter Skimmer was just to add another layer to the strategy of combating the litter that enters the water bodies,” said Ms Black. “It’s a great step to capture a lot of the trash that in the past was just left to float the river into the bay and beyond.”
Garbage skimmers have long been part of municipal efforts to clean waterways. Washington, D.C., began using skimmer boats in 1992 and added two more to its fleet in 2017, at a cost of $484,000 each. New Jersey’s Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission unveiled its first garbage collection vessel in 1998 and purchased a second in 2018 for approximately $653,000.
DC Water, Washington’s water utility, said its boats collect 300 to 500 tons of trash each year. The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission said its boats collect 160 tons of trash annually.
Carroll Muffett, president of the Center for International Environment Law, a nonprofit that focuses on environmental issues, said skimmer boat programs are well-intentioned, but such efforts do little to address the overall problem of plastic pollution.
While skimmers are designed to catch larger pieces of floating debris, much of the plastic is too small for the ships to catch, Muffett said. A 2019 study from the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg and Eckerd College estimated that there are four billion particles of microplastic – less than an inch long – in Tampa Bay.
Most council skimmers also have limited hours, Mr Muffett said. For example, the skimmer in Tampa runs 10 hours a day, four days a week, usually operated by two people.
“You start to understand that this is just a small Band-Aid on what is a huge problem,” he said. “What it also represents is the huge investment that cities, counties and states are making to solve this problem.”
There is not only a policy responsibility; it’s also a personal one, said John Atkinson, an associate professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering at the University at Buffalo.
“We are a culture that relies on plastic,” said Professor Atkinson, adding that “opting for a reusable water bottle, while small, can be significant if everyone chooses it.”
Policies that reduce the overall use of plastic, such as a ban on single-use disposable plastics, would be more effective, he said.
“We can’t scoop, we can’t scoop, we can’t net, we can’t recycle to get out of the plastics crisis,” Mr Muffett said. “The only way we can tackle the plastic crisis is to produce less plastic – and use it and lose it.”