TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – This week, Tampa’s “Little Skimmer” trash boat is celebrating one year on the water in a big way!
On Wednesday, the City of Tampa announced that since the “Little Skimmer” launched last year, the boat has cleaned up 20.1 tons of trash from the Hillsborough River, Davis Islands, and the Bay.
The boat, which operates eight hours a day, four days a week, gathers debris from the water onto a conveyor belt, which is then pulled into a storage bin, where the trash can be discarded properly later on.
Since the “Little Skimmer” has been on the water for a total of 841 hours, the city announced its collected 40,216 pounds (20.1 tons) of trash and has generated 9,645 KWh of electricity from the collected trash.
The vessel, which was launched as part of the “Keep It Clean, Tampa” initiative, also received an Urban Excellence Award last February in the Public Sector Project category.
According to the Ocean Conservancy, the top contributor to marine debris is single-use, or disposable plastic products, including container caps and lids, beverage bottles, plastic bags, food wrappers, cups, plates, cutlery, and drinking straws.