Big river clean up: tonnes of plastic removed from polluted Indian rivers

Simple, cost-effective waste traps made locally

Working in Kanpur since August 2022, Plastic Fischer prevents plastic from entering the Ganges river and moving into the Indian Ocean. The non-profit organisation has 15 full-time employees running the operation. To catch the plastic and other waste, Plastic Fischer developed “TrashBooms”, floating barriers that prevent the material from flowing downstream. These are a technically simple and cost-effective solution built from locally available materials that enables fast repair and high scalability. Every day, these traps are emptied, and the plastic is taken to a sorting plant, where it is dried, separated and further processed. “We sell all recyclable materials to local recyclers,” explains Karsten Hirsch, CEO and co-founder of Plastic Fischer. “Since most high-quality plastics such as PET bottles are already collected from the informal waste sector, only five per cent of our non-organic material can actually be recycled. All non-recyclable materials such as plastic bags are incinerated and used as an alternative energy source in cement plants, to replace coal.”

United against plastic waste

Plastic Fischer in Kanpur and Varanasi, another town on the Ganges, is certified under the Ocean Bound Plastic Standard, one of only two independent verification standards in the plastic credit sector worldwide.

“We expect to open at least four new locations in India in the coming year and are always looking for ways to improve,” emphasises Karsten Hirsch. “For example, our TrashBooms are no longer made from PVC pipes, but from LPDE made from plastic bags, which allows us to recycle parts of the river plastic into TrashBooms. We hope that many more companies will follow igus’ example and support us.”

Matthew Aldridge, Managing Director of igus UK, adds: “igus is always looking for new ways to promote the sustainable use of plastics. In addition to our own initiatives – such as our chainge recycling platform or the RCYL bike made from recycled plastic – we also want to support innovative programmes from other companies. Plastic Fischer has shown how you can make a big difference even with simple, cost-effective solutions. On top of cleaning up rivers, it creates new jobs.”

You can find out more about Plastic Fischer here: https://plasticfischer.com/