Baltimore’s family of ‘trash wheels’ inspired Latin America’s first renewably-powered, trash-trapping wheel, Wanda Diaz, that is situated on one of Panama’s most important but heavily polluted rivers before it flows into the Pacific Ocean.

Thanks to an initiative by the local environmental group Marea Verde, the wheel, fueled by hydraulic energy and solar panels, collects the vast amounts of waste produced in the capital Panama City with a metro population of around two million people.

Marae Verde started the project in 2017 in their backyard, the Matias Hernández River, because they were tired of seeing tons of garbage drifting down to the mangroves and ocean. But because it was a new idea for Latin America, preparing the pilot project took a lot of work.