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In new Dr. Seuss book, Mr. Trash Wheel meets The Lorax
Mr. Trash Wheel, the great, big, googly-eyed trash-eating machine that lives in the Inner Harbor, is featured in the newest book in “The Lorax” series. The children’s book, “Green Machines and Other Amazing Eco-Inventions” was written by Michelle Meadows and illustrated by Aristides Ruiz as part of Dr. Seuss’ Lorax book series. The Lorax, of course, is Dr. Seuss’ beloved icon of environmentalism who famously speaks for the trees and encourages good environmental stewardship.
The world's plastic pollution crisis, explained
Once in the ocean, it is difficult—if not impossible—to retrieve plastic waste. Mechanical systems, such as Mr. Trash Wheel, a litter interceptor in Maryland’s Baltimore Harbor, can be effective at picking up large pieces of plastic, such as foam cups and food containers, from inland waters.
Wheely cool: Baltimore's Trash Wheel family ate a million pounds of trash last year
BALTIMORE -- Baltimore's favorite family of trash-eating robots, the Trash Wheels, reached a major milestone last year: the collection of over one million pounds of litter and debris in 2023.
The Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore credits the historic milestone to a second consecutive year of operating four wheels, as well as an increase in winter rainfall helping aid collection.
Mr. Trash Wheel was installed in the Inner Harbor in May 2014, and in the last 10 years, the program has expanded to include Professor Trash Wheel, Captain Trash Wheel, and the newest, Gwynnda the Good Wheel of the West.
Baltimore’s trash wheels gobbled up over a million pounds of litter and debris last year
Baltimore’s beloved Mr. Trash Wheel and its family reached a major milestone last year: the collection of over 1 million pounds of litter and debris from the city’s waterways. The Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore credits the historic milestone to a second consecutive year of operating four wheels, as well as an increase in winter rainfall helping aid collection.
Baltimore's Mr. Trash Wheel subject of documentary project
While not a Marvel superhero, Mr. Trash Wheel is the guardian of the Inner Harbor, and now The Baltimore Invention, and the people behind it are featured in a movie of their own. A documentary from Rivers Are Life out of Michigan, who sent a film crew from Los Angeles to Charm City.
Most debris removed from a waterway by a trash interceptor
The most debris removed from a waterway by a trash interceptor is 2,019.54 tons (1,832.09 tonnes). This was achieved by Mr Trash Wheel, a waterwheel-powered trash interceptor located at the mouth of the Jones Falls River in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, between May 2014 and December 2023. Mr Trash Wheel is operated by the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore (USA).
His Diet Is Garbage, But He's Kinda Cute
A celebrity was born in 2014 when Mr. Trash Wheel started sucking up Baltimore’s trash. It has since gobbled up millions of pounds of trash and garnered thousands of social media followers.
Meet Mr. Trash Wheel, a champion for the end of single-use plastics
Baltimore loves its local celebrities. I don’t think I can count the number of Edgar Allen Poe-themed bars and shops I’ve been to in my four years living here. Of course, there’s Natty Boh, the mascot for Baltimore’s favorite local beer, who sits atop the retired brewery tower winking all night at the city (and has a rumored romance with the Utz potato chip girl). And then there’s another googly-eyed persona, who, in addition to boasting over 20,000 followers on Twitter, offers a much needed practical solution to the trash problem in Baltimore’s harbor. His name is Mr. Trash Wheel. And he just celebrated his ninth birthday.
This googly-eyed robot has sucked up 4 million pounds of trash from Maryland waterways — see how it works
He's tall, he's incredibly photogenic, he loves the environment, and he definitely isn't a picky eater. Who's this mystery man, you're probably asking? It's Mr. Trash Wheel. This giant, googly-eyed trash-collecting wheel, considered a "semi-autonomous" trash interceptor, was designed to be efficient at removing trash from bodies of water while also being able to withstand powerful storms. Trash interceptors like Mr. Trash Wheel are put at the ends of rivers or streams to collect waste before it makes its way into our oceans.
Meet Mr Trash Wheel – and the other new devices that eat river plastic
Mr Trash Wheel, known officially as the Inner Harbor Water Wheel, is a conveyor-belt system powered by currents and solar energy, launched in 2014 in the US city of Baltimore. Long booms with submerged skirts funnel waste into a central hub, where autonomous rakes scoop it on to a conveyor belt that deposits it on a barge, with more than 17 tonnes collected in a day.
Mr. Trash Wheel, Olive Your New Look
Two of Baltimore’s popular solar-powered, garbage-intercepting trash wheels are sporting some new accessories thanks to one of the city’s oldest food manufacturers. Pompeian, Inc., Baltimore-based maker of olive oil since 1906, and America’s largest brand for olive oil, wine vinegars, and cooking sprays, has “adopted” Mr. Trash Wheel and Professor Trash Wheel for the next year.
Mr. Trash Wheel is gobbling up millions of pounds of trash
Trash interceptors are becoming more common in large cities, helping to stop garbage as it floats down waterways. Mr. Trash Wheel is the pride of Baltimore, helping to make a cleaner, more beautiful city waterfront.
Baltimore inventor created a machine that has eaten more than 3 MILLION pounds of garbage
Marine pollution is a big problem, but it's not always an oil spill or toxic chemicals dumping into the ocean: sometimes it's as simple as a burger wrapper blowing into the bay
A Baltimore inventor has devised Mr. Trash Wheel, a googly-eyed contraption designed to 'eat' garbage that falls into Jones Falls stream, a tributary for Charm City's beloved Inner Harbor.
The goal is to snatch trash in the harbor before it floats out into the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
Great Big Story — This trash monster helps keep Baltimore clean
The city of Baltimore is taking on the problem of ocean plastics in a unique way -- mechanical trash-eating monsters. Mr. Trash Wheel, was installed in 2014 and removed over 1,000,000 pounds of trash from the harbor in its first few years of existence. Since then, more have been installed and the idea may soon spread to other American cities.
Diets of Debris — Thanks to its steady refuse-noshing, Mr. Trash Wheel makes the harbor cleaner
Adam Lindquist remembers the time Mr. Trash Wheel picked up a ball python. The West African snake, presumably someone’s escaped pet, had found its way to the Inner Harbor and was scooped up by the animated machine that labors where the Jones Falls meets the Chesapeake Bay. And that turned into a marketing moment: The interloper inspired Peabody Heights Brewery’s Lost Python Indian Pale Ale.
Baltimore's Mr. Trash Wheel earns Guinness record for cleaning river
Baltimore's Mr. Trash Wheel, a solar and hydro powered trash interceptor that removes debris from the city's Jones Falls River, was awarded a Guinness World Record for clearing 63.3 tons of garbage in one month. The googly-eyed trash wheel, invented by Baltimore local John Kellett for the Healthy Harbor Initiative of the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, cleared 63.3 tons of trash from the mouth of the river from April 1 to April 30, 2017, Guinness World Records announced.
Baltimore Harbor’s Garbage-Gobbling Tool Gains Speed
Ms. Cherif, project lead of San Francisco Bay Trash Wheel, draws inspiration from across the country, in Baltimore Harbor’s murky waters. There, Mr. Trash Wheel and two other googly-eyed garbage munchers in recent years have scarfed up tons of plastic bottles and other flotsam that had been headed for the harbor from tributaries such as the Jones Falls.
Trash wheels—floating, stationary gizmos that use water current and solar energy to power a conveyor belt—are on a roll in the U.S., at a time of growing public awareness about the environmental toll of trash on rivers, harbors, bays and oceans. Anthropomorphizing is optional.
The Promise of Mr. Trash Wheel
A prototype was installed in 2008. By 2014, Kellett’s invention was reborn as Mr. Trash Wheel—a fifty-foot-long machine, weighing nearly a hundred thousand pounds, that resembles a friendly mollusk, with giant, googly eyes and its own Twitter account.
Ocean Cleanup’s New Plastic-Catcher … Kinda Already Exists?
It's a great idea that, well, has been done before: interceptors (lowercase), as their known, have been operating for several years in Baltimore. That’d be Mr. Trash Wheel, an interceptor with giant googly eyes in Baltimore Harbor that gobbles up 200 tons of trash a year, and its sibling Professor Trash Wheel. (If you’re not following Mr. Trash Wheel on Instagram, you’re missing out.)
Mr. Trash Wheel turns 5; celebrates with a beer
BALTIMORE — Baltimore’s oldest googly-eyed garbage eater celebrated his fifth birthday with a beer last weekend. Mr. Trash Wheel, the floating trash collector that sits adjacent to Pier VI and collects all the junk that flushes out through the Jones Falls River, turned 5 years old in May. The device’s “parent” organization, the Waterfront Partnership, held a celebration at Peabody Heights Brewing in Waverly to celebrate the big day and the growth of the Trash Wheel family.
Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing and promoting the waterfront district, parks, and public spaces. We create welcoming programs, events, and recreational experiences while working toward a healthy harbor. We are committed to fostering connections among diverse communities to ensure equitable access to our blue and green space
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