Plastic pollution is clogging a river in Guatemala. Can we ever clean it?

Guatemala’s Las Vacas river is flooded with plastic. According to The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch NGO working to remove plastic from the world’s waters, over 20,000 tonnes of plastic enter Las Vacas each year. Predominantly generated from the country's capital, Guatemala City, the waste eventually makes its way into the Caribbean Sea.

In 2022, The Ocean Cleanup installed a trash-trapping fence they called the Interceptor Trashfence. Though huge amounts were captured, the first attempt was deemed unsuccessful as the structure suffered physical damage due to flash flood pressure and couldn’t retain a lot of the plastic.