This Floating Park is Made With Recycled Plastic

A FLOATING park made from recycled plastic has been unveiled in Rotterdam.

Rotterdam is a major European port and part of a busy metropolitan area, which leads to increasing amounts of floating debris ending up in the city's rivers, canals and harbour basins.

Above: The recycled park is a way to tackle plastic pollution as well as increase biodiversity in urban waterways (image courtesy of Recycled Island Foundation).

Devised by WHIM Architecture in 2014, the floating park project aims to capture the plastic refuse that ends up in the water, while also creating ecologically diverse spaces along the port city's stoney quaysides.

Above: Three plastic traps have been set up near key points in the city (image courtesy of Recycled Island Foundation).

Three plastic traps have been set up alongside the river and in key harbour basins, and volunteers have been actively retrieving plastic waste from the river banks.

These devices have been tested and optimised over a period of 18 months, during which time they collected debris in the city’s waterways.

Above: The recycled park is located in a disused harbour basin in the south of the city (image courtesy of Recycled Island Foundation).

Once the necessary amount of plastic had been collected, the raw material was further sorted and then melted to form pure new material.

Above: The recycled park features 28 hexagonal floating elements made from recycled plastic debris (image courtesy of Floating Island Foundation).

In the case of the recycled park, 28 hexagonal elements have been created and clustered together. One of these serves as a seating area, while others offer space for a plants such as reeds, grasses, shrubs and flowers.

Above: The park has already attracted aquatic birds (image courtesy of Recycled Island Foundation).

The first park measures is 140 square metres (1,507 square feet) in size, but it can be extended and relocated at any time and has already began attracting aquatic wildlife.