This is "Mr.Trash Wheel" â a water wheel in Baltimore that removes rubbish from the river.Â
The water wheel is powered by the river's current, which lifts rubbish and debris from the water and deposits it into a dumpster.
The rubbish is then sent to be incinerated, which generates power for some homes in Maryland. When there isn't enough water current, there is a solar panel attached to the water wheel to provide additional power.Â
Mr.Trash has been in use since 2014, removing over 1 million lbs of rubbish from Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Some of that rubbish includes 8.9 million cigarette butts and half a million polystyrene containers.Â
The company behind Mr.Trash are currently fundraising for a second wheel.
mad_man5 on April 19th, 2017 at 13:37 UTC »
As a Baltimore native I can say this has done wonders for the Baltimore harbor. We are now able to see about 18-24 inches into the water. Much clearer than before
EpsilonAI on April 19th, 2017 at 13:04 UTC »
If anyone's curious, the team behind this did an AMA awhile back https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4fzb1w/i_am_mr_trash_wheel_im_a_trasheatin_freewheelin/
ecky--ptang-zooboing on April 19th, 2017 at 11:23 UTC »
I love how they didn't round it up to 9 million and kept that 100k precision