Los Angeles has a trash problem—and it’s about to get a high-tech Dutch solution. With the 2028 Summer Olympics heading to LA, city officials want their beaches and waterways pristine. That’s why they’re turning to Boyan Slat, the visionary behind Ocean Cleanup, and his latest innovation: the Interceptor, a floating barge that does something remarkably simple but wildly effective—it catches garbage before it reaches the ocean.
The Interceptor isn’t glamorous. It’s a white, bulbous barge that sits dormant in the river until rain comes. When storms hit, water rushes trash from surrounding communities downriver toward the ocean and beaches. That’s when the Interceptor springs into action: a diver connects a boom and net to the river’s concrete side, funneling debris toward the center of the barge, where a conveyor belt pulls it out and deposits it into six collection bins. Once full, the barge hauls its catch to the harbor for processing. It’s low-tech genius meets engineering precision.
Ballona Creek near Marina Del Rey has been the test case since 2022, and the numbers speak for themselves. The single Interceptor there collects roughly 28,000 pounds of trash annually—more than 200 tons total since installation—from communities like Venice, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica. That success convinced Seal Beach City Councilmember Joe Kalmick and state assemblymember Diane Dixon to push for expanding the program to the San Gabriel River. They formed the San Gabriel River Working Group and commissioned a feasibility study to replicate what’s already working.
The challenge with LA’s rivers is scale. Boyan Slat himself noted that the sheer volume of trash demands a rapid extraction method, which is why every barge gets custom-built for its location. Originally designed for the world’s 100 most polluting rivers—mostly in low and middle-income countries—the Interceptor is now tackling America’s backyard, and doing it for an Olympic deadline.
Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson framed it plainly: “We want to make sure we present the very best of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and that includes a cleaner, healthier, more beautiful coastline.” With Olympic rowing and open-water swimming events coming to Long Beach, the stakes are as much about image as they are about environmental responsibility. But that doesn’t diminish what’s actually happening: a proven trash-collection system is being weaponized against the literal garbage flowing through LA’s urban waterways. Two years out from the Games, the rivers are being cleaned up, one barge load at a time.
