Dr Ing. Marija Demicoli and from the Institute for Sustainable Energy attended the launch of the Robotic Seabed Cleaning Platform in Venice, which is one of the two cleaning technologies being developed as part of the MAELSTROM (MArinE Litter SusTainable RemOval and Management) H2020 project. The Institute for Sustainable Energy team, led by Prof. Luciano Mule’ Stagno, has a key role in the project. Among other tasks, it is responsible for providing clean energy that will partly power the second technology, with the name of the Bubble Barrier, that will be installed in Portugal in the next few months.
The Robotic Seabed Cleaning platform demonstration was held at the Punta della Dogana in Venice, Italy on 9 June 2023, showcasing the work done during the past 2 years of the project to develop technologies capable of cleaning the seabed using novel methods aimed at improving the capability and efficiency of the Ocean Clean-up.
Massimiliano de Martin, environmental counsellor of the Comune di Venezia, Fantina Madricardo, the project coordinator of the MAELSTROM project, and Francesco Falcieri, CNR-ISMAR Institute of Marine Sciences headquarters representative, opened the event highlighting the ongoing efforts being made by the local scientific, technological, and governmental institutions to increase Venice’s resilience to climate and environmental challenges, such as plastic pollution.
“This system is the practical example of what we have been saying: if Venice wants to survive for another 1600 years, it needs to keep investing and integrating science and technology. The next step is to transform these pilot systems at industrial levels in a way that many others can benefit,” says Massimiliano di Martin.
Mariola Rodriguez from TECNALIA Research & Innovation – which together with LIRMM and ST – Servizi Tecnici designed the Robotic Seabed Cleaning Platform, guided small groups of participants in a demonstrative tour of the system. During the testing phases, the Robotic Seabed Cleaning Platform has collected an incredible amount of waste, including ropes, pneumatics, shopping carts, pedal boats, fishing nets and aluminium sheets amongst others.
“We need to achieve a level of awareness that really induces a paradigm shift of our daily habits. We need to reduce the consumption of plastic and understand that when we throw something away, it does not disappear into thin air, but that a lot of effort is required to dispose of it and to manage it; if it is not done properly what we throw away will most likely end up in the sea” – says Fantina Madricardo.
The marine litter collected by the technologies developed as part of the MAELSTROM project is identified and sent to differentiated recycling processes, according to its characteristics and degradation conditions. For example, one of MAELSTROM’s partners, Gees Recycling, is using some of this collected litter to produce urban furniture.
A big thank you goes to Venice’s local institutions which have supported the MAELSTROM project since the beginning and without whom no achievements could have been celebrated, namely: Comune di Venezia, Guardia Costiera di Venezia, Guardia Costiera di Jesolo, Guardia Costiera di San Benedetto del Tronto, Divers from Polizia di Stato, the Interregional Superintendent of Public Works - Ministero delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti, and Veritas.
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