Cleanup crews trap plastic on Guatemalan river to protect ocean

By Luis Echeverria

June 10, 202212:47 AM GMT+7Updated 2 years ago

RIO LAS VACAS, Guatemala, June 9 (Reuters) - Plastic bottles and mounds of trash lap onto the shores of a once pristine beach in a Honduran fishing village. It comes from neighboring Guatemala, carried down from a heavily polluted river.

Guatemala's Rio Motagua runs from the edge of the country's capital, Guatemala City, out to the Caribbean Sea. What once was a roaring river slows to a trickle in some areas, choked by trash.

"Everywhere you look, the mountains, the forest, the coastline, it's absolutely stunning... to me it was very shocking to see (the pollution)," said Boyan Slat, the founder of The Ocean Cleanup.

Slat and his team are in a fight against time to trap the trash, estimated to total around 20,000 tonnes a year, before it reaches the sea.

Garbage and plastic bottles float on Las Vacas river considered one of the most polluted rivers in the world, in the municipality of Chinautla, where the Ocean Cleanup NGO is testing a device to contain the garbage that ends up in the Atlantic Ocean, in Guatemala City , Guatemala June 8, 2022. REUTERS/Luis Echeverria Purchase Licensing Rights

"(This) is probably the most important river in the world when it comes to plastic pollution," Slat said, with the river currently contributing to about 2% of the world's total plastic emissions to oceans, according to his organization.

The issue stems largely from a tributary of the Rio Motagua, known as Rio Las Vacas, which is straddled by an urban landfill north of Guatemala City and also suffers from unlicensed waste dumping, according to The Ocean Cleanup.

The organization has now installed a chain-link fence spanning the width of the Rio Las Vacas, creating a dam of sorts to stop the trash before it reaches the trunk of river.

While not yet fully operational, the fence could be key to intercepting the plastic, according to The Ocean Cleanup. However, Slat points out that a long-term solution lies in proper waste management.

"If we can stop (the plastic) here, it's going to be a major success for the oceans," Slat said.

Reporting by Luis Echeverria for Reuters TV; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Lisa Shumaker