How the Interceptor works
On a floating barge at the mouth of Ballona Creek, where it meets Santa Monica Bay, a solar-powered system quietly scoops rubbish from the water. The device consists of two barges—a smaller platform nested inside a larger one. A floating barrier directs debris toward a conveyor belt, which lifts it onto the barge. An automated shuttle then distributes the waste into six dumpsters on a separate barge, sending an alert to crews when full. Solar panels form the ceiling, powering the slow-moving conveyor. The entire system can hold about 20,000lbs (9,070kg) of rubbish, equivalent to a fully loaded lorry.
James Patterson, operations manager for the nonprofit Ocean Cleanup, which created the system, says the waste is representative of urban runoff: “A wide variety of basic plastics – a lot of bottles, cups, to-go containers, things from restaurants.” Once collected, the trash is sorted and sent to refuse facilities. “We want to make sure that from start to finish, we’re pulling the trash out in a responsible way,” Patterson adds.
Why rivers are the key target
Ocean Cleanup’s founder, Dutch inventor Boyan Slat, originally aimed to tackle the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with skimming technologies. But research led the nonprofit to pivot to rivers—the arteries that carry waste into oceans. Studies by Ocean Cleanup show that just 1,000 of the world’s rivers are responsible for nearly 80% of plastic emissions into the ocean, and 90% of all ocean pollution comes from rivers. “We have to turn the faucet off before we can scoop the ocean,” Patterson explains. “Before you can clean out the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, you really need to turn off the source.”
Work on the autonomous boat began in 2017, and the LA pilot launched in 2022. It cost about $1.3m to design and permit, plus $1.5m to secure the boat and booms. Annual maintenance runs $650,000, and Ocean Cleanup provides the Interceptor to LA County free of charge. In 2025, the Ballona Creek boat stopped 143,710lbs of rubbish from entering the ocean.
Public impact and local benefits
The project is already affecting coastal communities. Beach cities south of the operation have lowered their budgets for beach grooming because there is less waste on the sand. “We want to make sure that from start to finish, we’re pulling the trash out in a responsible way,” Patterson says. Ocean Cleanup operates 21 Interceptor systems in 10 countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Guatemala, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. The goal is to clean up the 30 most-polluted cities by 2030.
Despite its success, the system isn’t perfect. A red plastic cup floating outside the barrier caught Patterson’s attention. “When something like that escapes, it hurts,” he says. Large logs pose the biggest challenge. Each river requires a custom setup: “There’s no one size fits all,” Patterson notes. Wildlife issues are rare except for seagulls, which sit and defecate on the barge, potentially corroding the metal.
What researchers say next
Ocean Cleanup plans to launch two more boats in the LA area—in the San Gabriel River and the Los Angeles River. Patterson emphasizes that the goal is to clean entire areas, not just specific rivers: “That’s how you get an actual genuine impact on society and on the environment.” The nonprofit continues to refine the technology, with each deployment tailored to local conditions. As Patterson puts it, “It may seem simple, but, truly, a master of engineering goes on inside of these.”
As reported by The Guardian.
