Shoreliner

“A dream project that captures the imagination”

“Shoreliner is a dream project that captures the imagination”, says Remco Pikaar, who calls himself a project leader of cool projects, and the Shoreliner is one of those.

The Shoreliner is a floating catch system developed by TAUW. It reduces the amount of plastic in rivers, seas and oceans by sustainably catching plastic waste, removing it, and then recycling it. The system is dynamic: it catches waste from the water surface while solely making use of water and wind flows. It also prevents waste from ending up at the shore and aims to improve water quality. For research and policy purposes, the collected waste is sorted.

“We submitted the proposal to TAUW Foundation for several reasons, the main being that Plastic Soup is a hot topic that needs to be tackled rather sooner than later, if you ask me,” says Remco Pikaar. “However, the business case is fairly difficult, due to unfinished policy and legislation, and lack of budget. TAUW Foundation offers us the opportunity to take action now!”

This dream project has multiple aims: to improve the Shoreliner itself; to attract young people and engineers to our line of work, business development and above all a sustainable (better) world. The Shoreliner contributes to the UN SDGs and to the missions of both TAUW and TAUW Foundation.

Remco Pikaar: “What I personally find important is that the Shoreliner appeals to young people (millennials, for example, who wish to work for TAUW). This generation wants to contribute to a better living environment. Our project offers them that opportunity”

“Since the start of the project, a lot has been done (read this article for example). One Shoreliner has already been implemented by TAUW and several Shoreliners are currently being developed. The quality of the design has improved too: its construction is more robust and the capacity increased. Also, interested parties know where to find us and we actively participate in the community of practice to share knowledge.”

Approved by TAUW Foundation

“Our reasons to approve this dream project were multiple”, Eefje van Empel by mouth of the TAUW Foundation. “Firstly, the Shoreliner is a highly innovative piece of engineering that does its job well. Secondly: it can be applied on a large scale. The large consortium was another reason. TAUW Foundation’s funding can therefore be seen as start-up money. The Shoreliner is a dream project because it deals with an important issue that fits our mission: cleaner water, less plastic. It also has a lot of potential; it is highly innovative.”

Sustainable development goals

The Shoreliner is a dream project that relates to the following SDGs:

Further reading

More information about this Dream Project can be found here and here.

Contact information

Any questions? We are happy to provide information.

Remco Pikaar
remco.pikaar@tauw.com
Phone number: +31 65 18 25 023