Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
Every year, about 13 million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in our ocean. A majority of this waste is transported through rivers in Central America and Southeast Asia. Since waste management infrastructure is limited and only about 23 % of the solid waste is collected in Guatemala, people often simply throw their waste into the river.
A general open question is how the transport of plastic waste relates to river discharge. In this TKI project, we implemented a new 'Impact barrier' in a major river in Guatemala, and we evaluated the collected waste at an 'Impact barrier' in an urban river.
All collected PET plastic was sold to a recycler. The other plastic waste has been stored in a designated area in Puerto Barrios, as River Impact intends to reuse this material in the future for making composite building materials.
Follow us on:
Facebook: facebook.com/DeltaresNL
LinkedIn: nl.linkedin.com/company/deltares
Instagram: instagram.com/deltares
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/deltares.bsky.social
Check out our website for more info: https://www.deltares.nl/en
Every year, about 13 million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in our ocean. A majority of this waste is transported through rivers in Central America and Southeast Asia. Since waste management infrastructure is limited and only about 23 % of the solid waste is collected in Guatemala, people often simply throw their waste into the river.
A general open question is how the transport of plastic waste relates to river discharge. In this TKI project, we implemented a new 'Impact barrier' in a major river in Guatemala, and we evaluated the collected waste at an 'Impact barrier' in an urban river.
All collected PET plastic was sold to a recycler. The other plastic waste has been stored in a designated area in Puerto Barrios, as River Impact intends to reuse this material in the future for making composite building materials.
Follow us on:
Facebook: facebook.com/DeltaresNL
LinkedIn: nl.linkedin.com/company/deltares
Instagram: instagram.com/deltares
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/deltares.bsky.social
Check out our website for more info: https://www.deltares.nl/en
