--- title: James Dyson: Sweep Our Dirty Rivers Clean description: This concept for a barge that scoops up debris could keep pollution from reaching the oceans canonical: https://time.com/23059/dames-dyson-sweep-our-dirty-rivers-clean/ author: James Dyson article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-13T11:01:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:53:50.652Z article:section: Ideas og:title: James Dyson: Sweep Our Dirty Rivers Clean og:description: This concept for a barge that scoops up debris could keep pollution from reaching the oceans og:url: https://time.com/23059/dames-dyson-sweep-our-dirty-rivers-clean/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd47a2de65e4a76fb/698685471eebf73d0f36fcce/polluted-waters.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Polluted waters og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: James Dyson: Sweep Our Dirty Rivers Clean twitter:description: This concept for a barge that scoops up debris could keep pollution from reaching the oceans twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd47a2de65e4a76fb/698685471eebf73d0f36fcce/polluted-waters.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sweep Our Dirty Rivers Clean by [James Dyson](https://time.com/author/james-dyson/) ## James Dyson Mar 13, 2014 11:01 AM UTC  Illustration by James Dyson for TIME by [James Dyson](https://time.com/author/james-dyson/) ## James Dyson Mar 13, 2014 11:01 AM UTC The amount of plastic debris in the oceans has grown a hundredfold in the past 40 years. Plastic doesn’t biodegrade but instead floats in giant, immeasurable patches for birds and sea life to ingest. Take the Eastern Garbage Patch, for instance, a large gyre of marine debris located near the Midway Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Albatrosses in the area give birth to 500,000 chicks every year, and nearly half of them die–many of them after consuming plastic fed to them by their parents, who think it’s food. The concept I propose, the M.V. Recyclone, would combat this ever growing problem of plastic waste making its way to our oceans by filtering out debris from the rubbish-stricken rivers that feed into them. By focusing on the polluted rivers, the M.V. Recyclone could tackle a concentrated stream of plastic, catching it before it spreads. _Dyson is the founder and chief engineer of Dyson Ltd._ James Dyson: Sweep Our Dirty Rivers Clean ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/23059/dames-dyson-sweep-our-dirty-rivers-clean/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/23059/dames-dyson-sweep-our-dirty-rivers-clean/"},"headline":"Sweep Our Dirty Rivers Clean","datePublished":"2014-03-13T11:01:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:53:50.652Z","description":"This concept for a barge that scoops up debris could keep pollution from reaching the oceans","url":"https://time.com/23059/dames-dyson-sweep-our-dirty-rivers-clean/","keywords":["Environment"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd47a2de65e4a76fb/698685471eebf73d0f36fcce/polluted-waters.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"James Dyson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/james-dyson/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd47a2de65e4a76fb/698685471eebf73d0f36fcce/polluted-waters.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Polluted waters","caption":"Polluted waters","creditText":"Illustration by James Dyson for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/environment/","name":"Environment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/23059/dames-dyson-sweep-our-dirty-rivers-clean/","name":"Sweep Our Dirty Rivers Clean"}}]}] ```