TEST CASE FOR THE CITY OF HASSELT, BELGIUM, BOLINA BOOMS
Temporary floating Bolina debris booms on the river Demer for the City of Hasselt, Belgium, as a test case.
Waste in waterways is almost invisible and continues to flow without being noticed, eventually entering the sea.
Mid-2019, the City of Hasselt, together with VMM and AQWatt, decided to install a temporary floating Bolina debris barrier on the river Demer in Kuringen, Belgium. Six Bolina Modular Debris Booms MDB600 with a standard length of 3m were placed at an angle of 45° just in front of the mill arm of the Dorpsmolen in Kuringen.
This Bolina MDB600 floating barrier of 18m long was left in the water for 4 weeks, after which an analysis was done of the collected floating debris. Especially the 20cm thick pulp of mixed waste in the form of twigs, microplastics, polystyrene beads and the like could simply not be removed manually. However, the bulky waste was sorted and transported to the container park. A total of 45kg of bulky waste was recovered, including glass, plastic bottles and caps, insulation material, waste wood, etc.
Given that this was at the height of the breeding season, nature was not far off…a bird’s nest had already been made on top of the floating debris.