High tech trap to keep clean waterways

Why?

Manningham City Council understood that litter pollution levels were high in some of its catchment’s waterways and wanted to respond. In 2015 it received a grant as part of the Litter Hotspots Program administered by the Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Group to run a three-year ‘Riversafe Low Maintenance Gross Pollutant Trap (GPT)’ project.

GPTs are vital in preventing litter from reaching waterways but can have some downsides, including high ongoing emptying and maintenance costs. Manningham City Council’s project developed a GPT that can be emptied at cost of approximately $1 per lift.

How? The Manningham municipality is home to Waterwatch, a community volunteer program that for the past eight years has conducted more than 10,000 water quality assessments in over 40 locations. Information from these sites as well as input from Council education and engineering services staff was used to identify litter hotspot sites within Manningham.

The Riversafe GPT is housed beneath a specially developed street bin. Manningham City Council developed the concept in-house and hired an engineering firm to design and develop the concept.

Once the GPTs are all operational, Manningham City Council staff will be trained in GPT maintenance. Importantly, if successful, GPTs will provide a solution that other councils can adopt, potentially helping to reduce waterway litter pollution across Australia.

What was the result?

The three-year project designed, built and conducted preliminary field tests for an innovative GPT integrated into a street litter bin. Six GPTs were installed across the Manningham municipality at litter hotspot sites that had existing drainage infrastructure and could be accessed by garbage trucks. Manningham City Council has started periodic data collection and monitoring. Performance results and servicing costs will be compared against other GPTs.

Manningham City Council has had to solve complex issues along the way such as redesigning the GPTs to meet high performance standards and dealing with intellectual property matters and licensing agreements in the tender process.

Manningham City Council expects the new GPTs will complement other litter prevention technologies and contribute to safer and cleaner municipal waterways.

Riversafe Low Maintenance Gross Pollutant Trap Manningham City Council

More Information - visit www.mwrrg.vic.gov.au

September 2017