Barranquilla, 21 September 2026
- Memorandum of Uderstanding will enable the deployment of solutions to intercept waste in areas such as the lower Magdalena River and other bodies of water draining into the Caribbean Sea.
- This will protect key ecosystems like mangroves and beaches and safeguard the livelihoods of fishing communities and those reliant on tourism.
Faced with a global problem in which hundreds of thousands of tons of plastic enter the world’s oceans through rivers every year, the Barranquilla Mayor’s Office and The Ocean Cleanup, an international non-profit organization, have formalized the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as part of international efforts to protect watersheds, mitigate environmental pollution, and safeguard ecosystems in the Colombian Caribbean.
This joint agreement with Barranquilla seeks to implement tailored Interceptor barriers and environmental engineering solutions to curb the flow of plastic waste directly at the source, representing one of the first steps of The Ocean Cleanup’s official arrival in Colombia, the thirteenth country to join its global operation.
Ricardo Restrepo, Regional Director for the Americas at The Ocean Cl...