Support The Great Bubble Barrier directly.
DonateA bubble curtain that guides plastic aside without blocking boats or fish.
Amsterdam’s barrier is also a monitoring site: catch is dried, sorted, and analyzed so the city can see what is entering the canals. The official Amsterdam page did not show a verified piece-count in the text retrieved for this draft, so no total is stated here.
The Great Bubble Barrier, a Dutch social enterprise in Amsterdam. Bubble Barrier Amsterdam was commissioned by Waterschap Amstel, Gooi en Vecht and the Municipality of Amsterdam, with Waternet emptying the catch.
A perforated tube on the riverbed pumps air into a diagonal curtain of bubbles. The rising current lifts plastic to the surface and the flow carries it into a catchment system. Their FAQ says it targets plastic from 1 mm to 1 m and cites an 86 percent catch rate for floating plastic.
The first long-term Bubble Barrier was installed in Amsterdam’s Westerdok in autumn 2019. Later systems include Katwijk (summer 2022), Vila do Conde, Portugal (winter 2023), and Harlingen (spring 2024). A research installation also ran at a wastewater plant in Wervershoof.
Amsterdam’s Westerdok, on the way from the canals to the IJ and the North Sea; other Dutch waterways, including Katwijk and Harlingen on the way to the Wadden Sea; and Vila do Conde, Portugal, on the way to the Atlantic.
Boats and fish can pass. The screen runs 24/7 across the full width and depth, including plastic below the surface that a boat crew can miss.
Support The Great Bubble Barrier directly.
Donate