It buzzes, it confuses birds, and in general, there are all kinds of reasons why wildlife enthusiasts aren’t necessarily fond of drones. If you weren’t impressed either, it’s time to change that opinion. Drones are very effective in helping Mother Earth.
Drones against waste
Drones can be of great help in litter control. A drone has been developed in Spain that can detect and collect trash from the beach, which in turn saves a lot of human eyes and hands. Drones can also use special cameras to monitor water quality. In China, flamethrowers are being put on drones to clean up dangerous parts of a power plant.
Close to home we also see solutions using drones to combat waste. Flanders is even the first in the world to use drones to scout garbage on the banks of the Scheldt. Through the Waste Watchers project, citizens are called upon to take pictures of the banks of the Scheldt with their drones. Then the AI will look for places where there is so much trash that something can be done about it. First of all, citizens are helping with trash-fighting drones.
Waste monitors
Researcher and Waste Watchers project manager Klaas Pauly: “We had the idea to map the rubbish on the banks of the Scheldt using artificial intelligence. But that’s a huge area. If you can deploy several drones that all visualize a small section of the riverbank, you can combine all of those Photos. This project is a unique opportunity to engage the general public and use technology to raise awareness of an important societal issue. We have the technology expertise here at VITO, but we have limited experience with citizen engagement. The River Cleanup is very strong at that.” Not saying anything crazy there: River Cleanup already has over 200,000 active volunteers in 90 countries.
There is also a Dutch company that is doing very well with a type of water drone that “eats” waste from lakes and other bodies of water and brings it ashore. Includes WasteShark created by RanMarine. It ensures that plastic and algae are removed from ponds, rivers and lakes, so that they do not have a chance to contaminate birds, fish and other animals and end the lives of these animals. The WasteShark is 157cm wide and can hold 160L (!) of waste. It has already removed 2,200 tons of plastic and 19,800 tons of other waste from the waters in Chennai, among other places.
In short, especially in a country like the Netherlands that knows what to do with water, drones play a major role in cleaning up waste, just as they do with our southern neighbours. Fortunately, because these devices are capable of doing much more than you think. Recently, a drone was able to rescue a person from the sea to save. Although it remains very useful also for beautiful pictures.
