Debris boom installed in Ballinderry river in hope to tackle plastic pollution

Last Saturday, February 24, Ballyronan Boat Club successfully installed a debris boom at the  entrance of the Ballinderry River in the hope of tackling plastic problems in Lough Neagh.

A debris boom is a floating barrier aimed to be installed at the entrance of a river to gather floating debris to later manually pick the rubbish up before it reaches the Lough or the  Ocean.

“It’s an interceptor,” said Elwyn Agnew of the Ballyronan Boat Club. “It’s done in other countries around the world.”

A debris boom is an eco-responsible way to gather litter from a river as it does not use energy, it only uses the flow of the water. It also does not restrain wildlife such as fish as there is no net under the floating barrier. 

Elwyn said this is a scaled-down version of the interceptor of the Ocean Cleanup, a  non-profit organisation, developing technologies to fight plastic pollution in the world’s oceans .

Elwyn explained that this floating barrier does not block the river. It is installed at an angle where all of the rubbish will follow the current due to the river flow. 

“We don't need to lock the river. We just need to put it up and maybe block off a quarter of it. That should be enough to catch most of the rubbish.”

Ballyronan Boat Club will go pick up the rubbish every three to four weeks and recycle it.

The location was carefully chosen by Ballyronan Boat Club as multiple elements need to be taken into consideration .

“We need to find somewhere in the river which is close to the end of the river preferably somewhere on a bend. We need to make sure we stay away from fishermen, people and canoes,” said Elwyn.

After noticing the high amount of rubbish, the boat club decided to take the matter into their own hands two months ago.

“We have lots of initiatives this year in Ballyronan Boat Club in trying to make people more aware of the problems of plastic pollution, litter in Lough Neagh and the seas.

“We have started going around every Saturday and collecting litter from around the shores of Lough Neagh. We have a little boat for doing that.

“We're trying to get some people to join in with this initiative.”

The boat club has been finding multiple objects in the water such as plastic bottles and cans amongst others. However, Elwyn said that what they find the most is dog toys. He wishes that people would take home whatever dog toys they bring with them.

“We are in the water all the time and we are very aware of the problem,” said Elwyn.

“We see the problem. We have a responsibility along with everybody else to stop it. So this is us just doing our little bit to help to stop the problem and we're not the cause of the problem. We can just see the result.

“Other people need to realise what happens whenever they throw that rubbish out of the car window. Maybe we can encourage them to stop.

“I think a lot of people are just ignorant. They don't actually think about it as a problem. We just have to help people to understand that something they do affects other people, nature and wildlife.”

Ballyronan Boat Club is planning to install a debris boom at the entrance of the Moyola River in County Derry in the near future.