RiverRecycle cleans some of the world's most polluted rivers by collecting and utilizing plastic waste that would otherwise be unvalued. The company's machinery removes plastic from the streams in Philippines and Indonesia. However, during the rainy season, the invasive water hyacinth (WH) species grows excessively, causing plastic waste to become entangled with the plant.
RiverRecycle begins its operations by collecting waste from rivers.
Water hyacinth is a challenge for RiverRecycle when it mixes with plastic waste in the river, obstructing their ability to collect plastic from the stream. It also clogs up the waterways, damages infrastructure, and leads to loss of income. Additional resources are spent to collect water hyacinth from the waters and place it into landfills where it decomposes and produces methane emissions that accelerate climate change.
A photograph from Pasig River covered by water hyacinth
RiverRecycle Oy seeks sustainable solutions to reduce water hyacinth proliferation's impact on collection and sorting, while also eliminating methane emissions. We explore ways to turn this problem into an opportunity.
Water hyacinth propagation is a complex problem caused by agriculture, industry, and lack of urban infrastructure. Our project proposes new uses for water hyacinth rather than addressing the root causes, which are beyond our scope.
Water Hyacinth overgrowth is mainly caused by agricultural nutrient runoff and pollution along rivers, which is exacerbated by a lack of proper wastewater treatment infrastructure in communities and industries along Asia's largest rivers. This leads to untreated waste being dumped into streams during rainy conditions, as I illustrated above.
External video: Water Hyacinth removal from the Pasig River in Philippines
External video: Water Hyacinth removal from the Pasig River in Philippines
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The water hyacinth is usually left to decompose in landfills, contributing to climate change by releasing methane and carbon dioxide emissions. Our solution aims to prevent these emissions by capturing the carbon emitted from the plant. However, separating the water hyacinth from the plastic waste targeted for collection by RiverRecycle requires additional workforce and resources.
Methane’s global warming potential is 25 times higher than that of carbon dioxide within a time span of 100 years (Wang et al. 2019).
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