After Selangor’s success in Klang River cleanup, advocates hope more Malaysian states follow suit

Slat said that the technology is the fastest and cheapest way to filter out the trash from rivers before its gets to the open sea, where pollution would be much harder to manage.

“Preventing plastic from getting into the rivers and on the streets, that will take a while… before you have really good infrastructure to take care of the waste. But until that happens, we can at least prevent it from going into the ocean… and help drive the change further,” he added.

There are currently 16 such vessels deployed along 15 rivers in eight countries, including Indonesia and Thailand.

Together, they have managed to prevent less than 2 per cent of the world’s plastic waste from flowing into the ocean. Hence, the non-profit hopes to massively widen its operations.

A CLEANER KLANG RIVER

Since cleaning operations involving the Interceptors began in the Klang River five years ago, its water quality has improved.

In 2016, the Water Quality Index (WQI) in the river was at class five, which means it was considered to be highly contaminated most of the time. 

Today, the index is at class three for about 60 per cent of the year. The classification means the water is moderately polluted, but would be suitable to feed livestock after treatment.