Hey there Crowned Scientists! Hopefully you all have been able to find environmental messages in the oddest places. If so, tell me where!

Do y’all (Hey I’m Southern) remember when Kelex became “Oscar the Grouch” but of the ocean? Supergirl’s dad, a Kryptonian genius, wanted to help Earth for Kara’s sake of course. Well this post talks about cleaning our oceans; another place that our trash (e.g., plastics) ends up.

In the CW’s Supergirl season 6 episode 8: “Welcome Back, Kara!” we finally see Kara back on Earth after being trapped in the Phantom Zone thanks to Lex Luther… he was the worst right? Well Supergirl’s dad, Zor-El (or Max if you love the older Roswell 👽 series ✌🏽), programs Kelex to not only clean the trash from the ocean but to also convert it to usable energy. Sounds like the waste to energy plan that many landfills and other industries are or have gotten into, right? Let’s save that for another post….

But back to the story- The amount of trash Kelex collects from the ocean turns him into a giant monster with an overloaded energy core. The team then realizes (a bit late) that some of the trash is radioactive…he literally becomes a nuclear bomb. The worst part – Supergirl has to sit most of the action out because of the small traces of kryptonite in the collected trash. And honestly? Kelex’s meltdown almost makes sense when you consider the scale of the problem. Every year, around 33 billion pounds of plastic make their way into our oceans. No wonder the robot short-circuited. Makes me think of the old saying “There’s no I in team.”

Naturally, the Super “friends” save the day by giving the monster a computer virus (thanks, Brainy!) and having Supergirl yeet an entire mountain of plastic into the sun. Who knew the solution to non‑recyclable garbage was basically launching it into a star?

Here in our Realm, our real-life ‘superheroes’ rely on a bit of everything to clean our waterways. I’ll touch on tech that includes solar-powered googly-eyed trash wheels, bubble curtains, robotics/drones, and AI satellites. We may not have the heat vision, but we, too, have some tv worthy antics and methods for both small and large bodies of water.

The Trash Wheel

We’ve all heard of the famous and beloved Mr. Trash Wheel that’s stationed in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. It uses long floating containment booms that funnel trash into its “mouth”. The large rake is powered entirely by the river’s current (yay hydropower!) and supplementary solar panels. All of the collected trash goes onto a conveyor belt where it is dumped into a barge. Mr. Trash Wheel has consumed tons of trash since its implementation, preventing plastic bags, foam containers, and plastic bottles from flowing out into the beautiful Chesapeake Bay and eventually the Atlantic Ocean.  

The Great Bubble Barrier

Another technology, originally developed in the Netherlands, that is being looked at for US waterways is the Great Bubble Barrier.  A perforated tube is laid diagonally along the bottom of a riverbed, and compressed air is pumped through it creating a wall of rising bubbles.  The upward current forces plastics to the surface, where the diagonal angle of the bubbles pushes the trash to the side of the river into a catchment system. The best part, fish and boats can pass through it unharmed. I’m sure ArmyCorps and fisheries concurrence is needed before something like this goes live.

Now, as amazing as all of this river and waterway tech is, the hard truth is that not everything gets caught in time. Some plastic slips through, finds its way downstream, and eventually makes it out to the open ocean, and that’s where things get more complicated. Once plastic ends up in the ocean, it gets trapped into massive rotating current systems called gyres. These large masses of waste are called garbage patches. These patches have the ability to accumulate in size and can grow almost as big as a small island.

System 03

The Ocean Cleanup, a non-profit organization, is the most prominent group actively combating plastic pollution in the open ocean.

They recently scaled up to System 03; a massive, U-shaped floating barrier roughly 2,250 meters (1.4 miles) long with a deep mesh skirt hanging below it. Two slow-moving ships tow this barrier through the water at about 1.5 knots. This approach acts like a giant, artificial coastline that funnels trash into a central retention zone.  

Safety measures include underwater cameras, breathing ports for mammals or turtles, and a remote-controlled “Marine Animal Safety Hatch” (MASH) that opens to let trapped creatures escape. You all are able to join or donate to keep their efforts going.

As we evolve, so does our methods of tackling issues. The digital world provides AI, satellites, and autonomous water drones. These don’t eliminate or reduce the necessity of physical components; instead, they offer smart data that enhances the efficiency of physical removal.

The ADOPT Program

Under the European Space Agency’s ADOPT program, satellites are equipped with image-recognition AI that can spot plastic patches from space. Ocean currents move swiftly, so AI doesn’t merely detect the garbage; it also employs drift modeling to precisely predict the trash patch’s trajectory over a 24-hour period. This enables cleanup ships to intercept it before it vanishes.  Eventually this tech will help identify the sources of the litter; which is a more proactive response to this issue.

Autonomous WasteSharks

For marinas, ports, and harbors, companies are deploying autonomous, aquatic drones like the WasteShark. RanMarine, a Dutch company, uses a canoe sized autonomous vessel to skim the water’s surface. Guided by GPS, they can intake pounds of floating plastic, debris, and surface oils on a single battery charge, bringing it back to a dock for recycling. Talk about efficient and similar to Kelex right?

Kelex may have gone nuclear and Supergirl had to yeet a mountain of plastic into the sun to save the day, but our real-world heroes are out here doing it one bubble barrier, one WasteShark drone, and one satellite scan at a time. In their own right, these actions are just as iconic.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg (or should I say, the garbage patch?). There’s so much more tech out there doing incredible work. If any of this got you fired up, consider donating to the Ocean Cleanup, looking up a local waterway cleanup near you, or just sharing this post. Every bit helps …. even if you’re not a Kryptonian.

As always- Stay Curious