$US1 million awarded to clean polluted Kingston Harbour

The Benioff Ocean Initiative on May 7 awarded the funds to The Ocean Cleanup in a project that will run for several years and is part of a wider global initiative in partnership with the Coco-Cola Foundation.

In making the announcement The Ocean Cleanup said: “Furthering along our efforts to tackle the world’s 1000 most polluting rivers, the Benioff Ocean Initiative has awarded The Ocean Cleanup $1 million (USD) to deploy an Interceptor in Kingston Harbour, Jamaica in a multi-year project. This location is vital to Jamaica’s tourism and its visibility is indicative of the country’s commitment to protecting the environment.”

“Our research has indicated that Hunts Bay, which pours into Kingston Harbour, is Jamaica’s highest polluted waterway, responsible for an estimated 578,000 kg of plastic flowing into the ocean each year, which equates to roughly the weight of 80 African elephants,” added the Dutch-based environmental group which was founded in 2013.

Under the project the Interceptor will scour the waters of Hunts Bay and Kingston Harbour collecting plastics for recycling and other unwanted waste materials.

“The installment of the Interceptor will be in collaboration with Recycling Partners Jamaica who will help to drive the behavioral changes needed to sustain the efforts and will also operate the Interceptor, ensuring the environmentally sound disposal of all collected plastics and materials,” said The Ocean Cleanup.

The news is welcome by stakeholders.

“This is great and a big step in the right direction,” tweeted Daryl Vaz, government minister with responsibility for the environment.

“This is very cool,” wrote the highly respected environmentalist Diana McCaulay on Twitter, “but we should not behave as if it therefore doesn't matter if the gullies are full of garbage. The public health impacts of poor garbage disposal practices will remain.”

The Benioff Ocean Initiative is located at the University of California, Santa Barbara and works to ensure future generations inherit a healthy ocean by combining science with global creativity and collaboration to fulfill that promise.

The Kingston Harbour project “is another exciting step towards realizing” its ambition of ridding the oceans and rivers of pollution across the globe.