Trash Wheel

A trash wheel is a water-powered floating interceptor that captures riverine litter before it reaches the sea, named for Baltimore’s Mr. Trash Wheel, installed at the mouth of the Jones Falls in 2014 by the Waterfront Partnership’s Healthy Harbor initiative. A water current turns the wheel, which drives a conveyor that lifts floating debris onto a dumpster barge; solar panels and a pump supplement low-flow periods. The Baltimore Trash Wheel family removes roughly 500 tons of trash and debris each year, with collection driven heavily by storm runoff. The design has been replicated in other harbors as a stormwater-litter capture method.