SIDNEY: Volvo’s living seawall against marine pollution.

26. January 2019 | Social | via Volvocars.com

The Living Seawall is made up of 50 tiles designed to mimic the root structure of mangrove trees. (Credit: volvocars.com)

One garbage truck of plastic enters the world’s oceans every minute, and more than half of Sydney’s shoreline is artificial, Volov states on its website. Rich, vibrant habitats have been replaced with seawalls and degraded by plastic pollution.

The Volvo Ocean Race has been hosting beach clean-ups all over the world to help combat plastic pollution. But while they’re important, beach clean-ups alone aren’t enough to save our oceans.

There’s so much plastic in the ocean that scientists say it’s simply not feasible to remove it all. Tearing down seawalls isn’t viable either. Solving environmental issues requires modern, divergent thinking.

That’s why we’ve partnered with the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and Reef Design Lab to create the Living Seawall.

Designed to mimic the root structure of native mangrove trees, the Living Seawall adds complexity to the existing seawall structure and provides a habitat for marine life. This aids biodiversity and attracts filter-feding organisms that actually absorb and filter out pollutants – such as particulate matter and heavy metals – keeping the water ‘clean’. The more organisms we have, the cleaner the water.

Living Seawall – re-thinking sustainability