A San Diego-based environmental group is installing a trash boom in a Tijuana tributary as an environmental crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border continues.
WILDCOAST, an international conservation group that focuses on coastal and marine ecosystems in a changing climate, announced Tuesday that it has installed a new trash boom in Matadero Canyon, which is a tributary of the Tijuana River on the Mexico side of the border.
The device is expected to catch more than three tons of trash every month, totaling around 80,000 pounds every year.
The trash that the boom catches will be sorted, recycled, and sometimes up cycled by local community members employed by WILDCOAST.
“The team will work diligently to ensure 90% of the plastic salvaged is directed to recycling or reuse,” WILDCOAST said in a statement.
This is the second boom that the non-governmental organization has placed in a local tributary. The group says that the trash boom has stopped more than 239,000 pounds of solid waste, plastic, and tires from reaching the ocean.
Together, the two trash booms will be responsible for stopping some 160,000 pounds of trash from entering the Pacific Ocean annually.
The project was completed with support from Culligan International. Culligan also supported the engineering of two removable booms which will be deployed after rain events as needed.
In conjunction with these booms, WILDCOAST manages four plastic recovery points across 24 neighborhoods in Tijuana through a citizen network.
“It is more important than ever to deploy innovative, low-cost solutions to address the toxic pollution crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border,” said WILDCOAST Executive Director and former Mayor of Imperial Beach Serge Dedina.
“We have to move quickly with local communities in Tijuana to stop the tsunami of plastic that is literally filling our state and federal reserves with trash, threatening the health of residents and wildlife such as blue, gray and humpback whales.”
The nonprofit group said their plan creates circularity in waste solutions; it also builds resilience and creates local jobs.