If you’re in the Netherlands in the next few months, keep an eye on the ports: there are garbage collectors in Rotterdam wading in the water. These aren’t actual human trash collectors, mind you, but water drones. But it’s the bigger Waste Shark, which Port Technology reports is about the size of a passenger car that can actually pick up a load of trash— 1102 pounds of it, to be exact — through a large mouth roughly a foot below the water surface.

Key Takeaways:

• In early September, Dutch tech company RanMarine debuted two aquatic drones to help clean up the Rotterdam port: the AquasmartXL and the Waste Shark.
• But it’s the bigger Waste Shark, which Port Technology reports is about the size of a passenger car, that can actually pick up a load of trash — 1102 pounds of it, to be exact.
• The drones will soon be a part of a six-month pilot project called the Port Waste Catch.

“The drones will soon be a part of a six-month pilot project called the Port Waste Catch, which the Port Authority of Rotterdam hopes will get startups and other private companies thinking about how to clean up the “plastic soup” littering Europe’s busiest waterway.”

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