The Great Bubble Barrier: How air bubbles are stopping river plastic before it reaches the sea

By Denis Loktev Published on 20/07/2026 - 7:02 GMT+2 Every year, millions of tonnes of plastic end up in the world's oceans – and rivers are the primary route. While beach clean-ups and ocean collection efforts have become more popular in recent years, they are not keeping pace with the plastic tide. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT "The production of plastic is only increasing," Anne Marieke Eveleens, chief business development officer of The Great Bubble Barrier, tells Euronews Earth. "We expect it to triple by 2030. The demand for plastics is very high. We use it in all of our daily activities – and at the same time, we don't really know what to do with this plastic at the end of its life." Less than 10 per cent of plastic is recycled, she notes, meaning the rest frequently finds its way into waterways by accident or through poor waste management. Ocean clean-up operations, she says, "help – but more effort is needed to actually put this to a stop." Bubbles as a barrier for plastic The Great Bubble Barrier takes a different approach: intercepting plastic in rivers and canals before it ever reaches the sea. A perforated tube is laid across the bed of a waterway and connected to an air pump, creating a rising curtain of bubbles. When installed diagonally across the flow, the current carries floating debris – and material suspended lower in the water column – to a collection point at the bank. "We don't hinder fish, we don't hinder ship traffic, but we can cover the full width and depth of a river," Eveleens tells Euronews Earth. According to the co-founder, the system has been validated by universities and independent research institutes, and captures around 86 per cent of surface plastic. "That number is indeed quite stable," Eveleens says. The company currently operates barriers in Amsterdam, Katwijk and Harlingen in the Netherlands, as well as near Vila do Conde in Portugal, with further installations under discussion in Europe and the United States. Taking The Great Bubble Barrier global Scaling the technology – particularly into Southeast Asia, where some of the world's most heavily polluted rivers flow – is the company's stated ambition. Implementation is not simply an engineering challenge, Eveleens explains. It requires coordinating governments, local waste managers and communities simultaneously. "You need to make sure that permits are in place, that there's a waste collection system so that our waste doesn't end up a few metres further into the river again," she explains. "We work together with communities in the local area – we ask their help to figure out what the most frequent object is that we find and whether we can do something about it locally." That multi-stakeholder model, she says, has been central to every successful deployment so far. Recognition has helped accelerate the company's reach. As a finalist for the Earthshot Prize – Prince William's global environmental award – The Great Bubble Barrier gained significantly wider visibility. "Almost everywhere we go in the world, people have heard of a bubble barrier," Eveleens tells Euronews Earth. "It really made a huge push for us to go international and bring our solution to where it's needed." Looking ahead, Eveleens wants to see barriers installed at pollution hotspots in major cities worldwide – not just collecting waste, but generating data to inform policy. "All this data that we're gathering is also a way to make new policy to prevent it from happening in the first place," she says. "To see these popping up on all the crucial places in the world – that would be the biggest dream." Additional sources • The Earthshot Prize