‘Incredibly promising’: the bubble barrier extracting plastic from a Dutch river

Technology applied to Oude Rign river helps stop plastic pollution reaching sea

Five years ago, Claar-els van Delft began to suspect that plastic waste on the beach at Katwijk in the Netherlands did not come from visitors, or the sea, but from the mouth of a nearby river.

We started picking up litter and we noticed, near the river entrance, pieces that came from fresh water - all kinds of plastic," she says. Tampon sheaths, brush bristles, but also crisp packages, drink packages, everything."