How Mr. Trash Wheel Is Cleaning The Chesapeake Bay

Marylanders take pride in the Chesapeake Bay, the backbone of our state, but the watershed hasn’t been healthy for several decades. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation gave the bay a C- in its 2016 report, which was the last released assessment of the bay.

This is sad to hear considering the history of the Chesapeake Bay. It was formed 10,000 years ago and is home to 3,600 species of plants and animals. The Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries have 11,684 miles of shoreline, which is more than the entire West Coast of the United States.

Despite the bay’s importance, people dump tons of trash into it each year, making the water look disgusting and harming the animals that inhabit the waters. This is not good for people who enjoy boating nor is it good for the many fisheries that rely on the bay to make a living.

“Tons of the debris we have in the bay comes down from the Susquehanna River and is not only dangerous to the animals but [also] dangerous to the people boating,” said Pasadena crabber Dick Sadler.

Mr. Trash Wheel, created by John Kellet in 2008 and owned by the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, has been reducing pollution in the bay since its introduction in May 2014. A solar- and tidal-powered barge, Mr. Trash Wheel is located at the opening of Jones Falls in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, and it collects trash by trapping it onto a conveyer-belt, which transports it into a giant dumpster. Most of the trash is then incinerated to generate electricity, while the rest is recycled. All of this is a part of the Healthy Harbor initiative to make the Baltimore Harbor swimmable by 2020.

A companion, Professor Trash Wheel, was placed at the end of Harris Creek in Canton in 2016. Mr. Trash Wheel and Professor Trash Wheel have collected more than 999 tons of trash. From January 2, 2017 to July 28, 2018, the trash wheels collected more than 64 tons of trash and powered more than 1,069 homes in the Baltimore area. The most trash collected in a single day by Mr. Trash Wheel was roughly 38,000 pounds.

The trash wheel is an effective piece of technology being used in the Inner Harbor and it could serve as inspiration for people developing other technologies to clean the bay.

Not everyone has to be an inventor to work toward a solution. We can all stop littering, reduce runoff, use natural pesticides and lobby for better laws.

Sadler had one suggestion for making the bay healthier.

“As someone who deeply cares for the bay, I wouldn’t be against paying extra money for something like a crabbing or fishing license to help fund the efforts to restore the bay,” Sadler said. “Restoring the bay is important so we can enjoy it and future generations can enjoy it as well.”