Trash tracking satellites - 9th December 2020

The quantity of waterborne waste allowed to reach the ocean from Indonesia is exceeded only by waste from China. The 620,000 tonnes of plastic dumped into its waterways every year has led the Indonesian government to task scientists with solving this problem, in an attempt to reduce the figure to a third of its current total.

With the World Bank supporting a partnership between the Indonesian Maritime Affairs Ministry and French space agency subsidiary CLS, their first step is to gather information. Satellite beacons are being released in Indonesian river estuaries to mimic the waste and ascertain where it gathers and lands. The trackers transmit hourly updates to satellites. This data is then conveyed to France, where it is studied by CLS scientists like Jean-Baptiste Voisin CEO of CLS Indonesia.

Voisin: "Most of them, 90 percent of them are actually beached on the Javanese coast here, ok, and only those - that one actually went to the, to that direction."

Since the vast bulk of this waste arrives back on the Indonesian coast, the task of recovering this trash via carefully distributed waste collection traps, emptied using boats, will be relatively straightforward.

However, the outstanding 10 percent that journeys into deep water poses a bigger problem, as Voisin points out.

Voisin: "Some of the one that we are released six months ago are still, are still drifting. Unfortunately, I would like to say, because it means they are still in the ocean, and most probably it means that most of those marine debris will, will reach all the, the big accumulation of plastic that we are all aware of, either in the Indian ocean Indian or Pacific, Pacific ocean."