Europe has set clear ambitions on plastic pollution. The EU’s Zero Pollution Action Plan aims by 2030 to cut plastic litter at sea by 50% and microplastics released into the environment by 30%. Its wider plastics agenda is also meant to support innovation, competitiveness and jobs, writes Francis Zoet, Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer, The Great Bubble Barrier.
The challenge now is implementation.
The European Commission has been clear that, while progress has been made, significant gaps remain in the measures member states are using to reduce marine pollution. That points to a practical conclusion: Europe needs more infrastructure that stops plastic before it travels downstream.
At The Great Bubble Barrier, that is the problem we work on every day. Our technology uses a perforated tube on the bottom of a waterway to create a curtain of bubbles. That bubble curtain generates an upward current, bringing plastic to the surface. By placing the system diagonally in a river or canal, we use the natural flow of the water to guide waste to the side and into a catchment system for removal. The system is designed to operate continuously, across the full width and depth of a waterway, without hindering ship traffic or fish passage.
What makes this technology important is not that bubble curtains are new in themselves, but that they have been adapted into a practical plastic interception system. The Bubble Barrier is the first bubble curtain designed specifically to capture plastic pollution in rivers. Pilot data show an 86% catch rate for floating plastic, and the technology can capture plastic items from 1 millimetre up to 1 metre in size.
At The Great Bubble Barrier, we believe that solving plastic pollution requires a holistic approach. This includes reducing plastic production, redesigning everyday products, implementing effective regulations, investing in innovative technologies, and educating the public. This is no substitute for any of those efforts, but a complement to all of them. Once plastic reaches larger bodies of water, collection becomes more difficult and more expensive. That is why upstream intervention matters. There is growing recognition that meeting water and ocean goals will require moving beyond policy commitments toward the development and deployment of practical solutions.
Rivers, canals and estuaries are where that shift from ambition to implementation begins to take shape.
Our own projects show what that can look like in practice. Since 2019, our first long-term system in Amsterdam has intercepted plastic before it can pass through the city’s IJ waterway toward the North Sea. By August 2025, that installation had captured more than one million pieces of plastic. Today, we have four systems in operation: three in the Netherlands and one in Portugal. In Harlingen, a Bubble Barrier helps prevent plastic from entering the UNESCO-protected Wadden Sea. In Vila do Conde, we adapted the design to tidal conditions, making it our first project in a tidal river.
Those projects have also shown that technology works best when it is tied to local governance and local infrastructure. In Amsterdam, the bubble barrier solution forms part of the ‘Plastic Smart Cities’ programme and is used not only to intercept waste but also to monitor it. The collected material is analysed using the river-OSPAR method, which helps identify the types and likely origins of pollution entering waterways. That matters for policymakers. The challenge is not only one of collection. Understanding what plastic is entering Europe’s waterways, and tracing it back to its source, is just as important.
Recognition also has a role to play. This year, The Great Bubble Barrier was selected as a finalist in the Water category of the Zayed Sustainability Prize – the UAE’s pioneering global award for innovative solutions to global challenges – a recognition that has meant more than visibility alone. The Prize introduced funding for all finalists, with US $100,000 per organisational finalist. For a solution at the scaling stage, that kind of support is meaningful. It allows work that is already proving itself in the field to go further. The 2027 Prize cycle is now open for submissions. In this field, good ideas are not the limiting factor, but the capacity to scale them is. Recognition and funding structures like the Prize can help bridge that gap by giving proven solutions the resources and visibility they need to reach more communities, waterways, and ecosystems.
Europe’s plastics strategy will not succeed through downstream clean-up alone. It will need stronger prevention, better regulation, more circular business models and more effective waste systems. But it will also need to treat waterways as part of the solution. Rivers and canals connect Europe’s cities to its coasts and seas. They are a critical opportunity to tackle plastic pollution close to the source.
