could theyopening up have not cleaned out the top of the spillway before opening

Don't feel bad. Most of what you recycle ends up in the landfill anyway.

@@jeffer1101 Plastic isn't really recycled much, but about two thirds of aluminum and paper are. A third of glass is recycled, even though it is the easiest material to process. We should do better with glass, but plastic is an almost impossible nut to crack.

@@E3ECO Yes, the metals and glass are managed well. Unfortunately, there is so much plastic though and almost none of it is recycled (even if you put it in your bin). That said, I do see a lot of companies moving to more paper/cardboard type containers to reduce plastic, which is good.

Recycling is bad for the planet tho soooooo ♻️ 😢

The ideal place to filter out polluting plastics, but no. Kick it downstream. Let someone else deal with it. And you wonder if regulation is a bad thing.

@@lairddougal3833 If you can come up with a method of filtering out plastics at that point then do be sure to patent it, because you are likely to make money from it. Plastic pollution is caused by people who dispose of it irresponsibility. Until everyone learns and applies that, then no number of grand schemes to clean it up will ever succeed.

Regulation would be to not have it there in the first place. Why is it their responsibility when it was created by others being lazy and not properly throwing away the trash they created.

@@swizlstik Not sure how often they do this but certainly not more than every six months. Likely yearly during times of high flow. The plastic accumulation therefore represents the total for the entire length of the river/catchment area for that period.

@@lairddougal3833 : So, you go there and clean it up.

They need to combine it with a claw machine that picks up the big pieces before they let it go downstream.

Was gonna say this!

@@natehill8069yes then drop the big pieces at any time they want.

I have vertigo.

"Nauseated" is my new favorite word

I don't care for heights, It would take a lot for me to look over the side. I felt dizzy looking over the edge of a local one... it would not set any height records, but it was certainly pretty tall. At best, you'd be Stephen Hawking without the brilliant mind if you fell.

Heeeeh. Quite the experience isn't it? Been there myself. Was fun actually.

they literally could have taken the trash out in a few hours!!!! but I guess human decency doesn't exist in business....

@@maxwalsh234 A few hours? I think that might be a bit unrealistic. I think the answer is for people, on an individual level, to be responsible for keeping their debris out of our rivers, lakes, and oceans. I mean how hard is it for you to pick up after yourself and make sure you trash is disposed of properly? Everybody blames government and businesses but then, if they take the time and money to clean this up, their costs go up and it all ends up back at the consumer level. We, the consumers, need to take care of this problem at the most fundamental level. Pick up after yourself!

I have been on a lock and dam and the equipment to lift it out and dispose of it involves getting it to shore one excavator bucket at a time and the infrastructure to accomplish that needs to be built into the dam and gates most of which were built many years ago Just sending it down river to a place where it can be removed is often the only option and most if it ends up in the gulf Cleaning up Rivers and the ocean should be our main priority but instead we spend time and money discussing drag queens and paying off prostitutes and how many tanks and bullets to send overseas

@@kerrydowning5374 one thing you’re missing is alot off this debris is from floods. Aka garbage cans full of trash floating away, house sheds yards with debris getting swept away. It’s not all just littering…

@@kerrydowning5374 Environmentalists have seen how industry is in favor of shifting the burden for responsibility to the individual. Away from the major aggregate contributors which are the monied interests. We all share a responsibility of caretakers of the environment. If industry is to be a good neighbor, then how about the area that profits the greatest takes the lead in being a responsible member of the community.

dam the dams

seeing all that garbage just pisses me off, they could have removed all that..

but it wouldn't be nearly as exciting to watch.

I had to read that first sentence 5 times

ask yourself how long it would take and how much it would cost to hire people with the appropriate licenses and to perform all concrete steps of the process involved of transporting an island of trees and natural debris plus plastics and separate everything. How would the separation work, would it be mechanical and require human operators? How long would it take? What would the energy costs of drying the separated wood? What would be done with the leftovers and how much would it cost to dispose of it? And various costs involved. You'll find that it will be very expensive firewood, and why it isn't done.

@@AxionSmurf ok and the reason why you pollute the debris in the river and later in the ocean is it cost money and manpower. sorry, this is thinking of the 19th. century.

It needs to be cleared out of the dam itself. It's clogging any mechanisms there, and puts extra stress on the dam. If you want to capture and recover the debris, better to do it immediately downstream where there's better access and more room to work.

@Reimund Boxhammer Which century it is has nothing to do with it. Things cost money, jobs cost money. Money is about the exchange of resources. It's just obvious, basic stuff. Do the math.

Cool. I'm happy to see your solution implemented provided you pay for it. Whatever amount of money it would cost to do as you propose it would almost certainly be more beneficial to the environment to take that money and use it earlier in the "timeline" of the waste getting to the point it has by the time this video was filmed. @@reimundboxhammer1447

"They" sure could!

Exactly what I was thinking. Why just open it up when you could at least clear the crap out first. >.> A little preventative might also stop this building up in the first place.

@@Kalamain you should get into water management

But this is WAY more fun!! 😃

They'd probably have to redesign the dam. Wonder if it can be down further downstream though with less infrastructure involved.

Maybe next time just dont throw in garbage in the water?

You volunteering to get in there and do it?

We only have to do that in the west. Cuz you know….privilege.

I agree all them tree limbs and downed, by nature logs, they need to be cleared so they don’t enter the waterway. DAAAAAA

people who drive those large trucks in this day and age are assholes anyway (professional workers who really need one excluded)

stop preaching, ya self-righteous ass. One problem does not mean the absence of another. Just because people litter does not make t OK for them just to release all that trash downstream.

I cant think of a way to prevent a dead tree from getting into a river.

It's ironic how the trash barely gets any attention while "climate change" grifters are going to save the planet from less than a 1/4 of a degree over a hundred year time period, at the cost of trillions of dollars to the consumer.

absolutely!! we need to collectively understand the value in reusable packaging, storage, and other mass-produced items!! reduce, reuse, recycle, REFUSE single-use plastics!!

Look how muddy it is too probably from flood waters washing away everything on the banks.

go clean it up if it bothers you so much

It comes from 3, 3rd world countries

That was what I thought

Who’s wondering?? We here in the developed world see what’s known as wood or branches. Plastic is not even natural in nature like the organic debris you see in this clip. And this dam doesn’t appear to be releasing into the ocean as much as it is a river. Maybe take a little time to research before making uninformed comments.

@@ohandanotheronebitesthedus6247no it really doesn’t 😂

Can clear that crap, and *newsflash* it costs money.

Exactly. Why don't they funnel the debris onto a conveyor and have the conveyor dump it into a dumpster?

It's a dam stupid! Conveyor belt are you nuts there is barely any trash it's all wood and sticks, make the humans who put it there in the first place take their lives at risk removing it

Because 95+% of it is biological. Meaning plant debris. Why waste fuel on natural detritus?

​@@rael5469 +1, I've seen a small hydropower plant in Sweden equipped with remote-controlled robot arm to clear debris out onto a conveyor.

😂 cry harder

are your hands painted on

@@ivanolsen7966 I do not know what you mean.

They call that job security ehh If there's no problems to fix, we won't need someone to fix em 😅😆

I fail at Jedi.

Damn! I must be better than Master Yoda...

That was accumulated within a couple of days non stop raining in the Northern part of Laos.

waste water??? it's literally water in a river

@@theimmux3034 In hydroelectric dams, the water upstream is routed through turbine generators within the dam. If water is allowed to flow through the spillway, that water cannot be used to generate electricity and is therefore a loss.

They usually wait to do this when they have to release such water

Homeless people

You cannot stop that from getting in there. Needs to start with people with trucks not putting crap loosly in the back of their truck or open bed vehicle. It all comes from everywhere. I do agree though while it is bound up here and just sitting there why is there not a method of a back hoe or something that can reach in there and kjust pull it out. It is going to get pilled up in the bottom of the catch basin, so just get it out now and be done with it

Don't worry it's getting shredded into a million peices so you'll never see it

Even more of a shame that the trash gets to the river in the first place. The natural debris should be allowed to run down stream but the rest shouldn't be there at all.

​@@rickmiller1425so just ignore what the beavers do?

driftwood pellets too.

What "extra" amount? Sticks were there in the river already, they were not created by tourists or hydroelectric turbines.

@@u1zha lol. There's probably already wood and debris below the dam, so now with this debris flowing over the dam there's extra debris for the guy down stream.

They have a dam downstream just for that. Wood gets shredded and used. The garbage is pulled out and either recycled or burned.

Here’s some food for thought, China is damming up all their rivers for two reasons. Hydroelectric power, and the ability to take control of bordering country’s food supply

How does that differ from living on a riverbank anywhere at all? Mess that gets carried by river does float by you, yes. It's not like the dam created more mess than there was in the river...

Down stream.

@@danajohnson4480 Guess I'm just confused then, what "clearing debris" in the title means. Clearing it from where? 🌞

Greata is down the bottom with a net to pick it up.😂😂

@@xuejiaoxu6778 Poor Greata has a job and a half 😂. 🌞

I tried going fishing downriver on a day a dam on the Snake River did a big spillway dump like this... well I didn't know but I did learn it doesn't make for good fishing at all...

If they let the naturally occurring sticks to flow over the dam _constantly_, then that'd mean even more water wasted.

It's a dam, the trash being stuck there is a side effect. If you want the wood, you could paddle back and forth upstream and catch it before it gets there.

Of course it can be done but that's volunteer work. You know drying wood costs (space and time, even if you ignore heating). What's profitable to do to regularly shaped high quality timber, is not necessarily profitable to do to driftwood.

Please, do tell. To the casual viewer it looks like yards upon yards of debris mixed with trash being flushed down stream. How are we misinterpreting what was presented on the video? It’s an honest question.

​@@christopherpilkington8375this guys an idiot. Theres no misinterpretation of what was going on here.

Yes, that is the function of the flap.

They ain't catching it, it just gathers up there, and there no other way getting it out without risking ppl life's so they have to let it go down river

@@MrSsargent22 and you believe that nonsense? 😂😂

@@steveluckhurst2350 lol would you try

@@MrSsargent22 ukposts.info/have/v-deo/kHxidYeErX1_sGw.html

​@@MrSsargent22 There are other ways but it's costly. Who wants to finance conveyors to extract that wet wood mixed with plastic and dead fish...? I have nothing against doing it, as an idea, but not sure I can afford. I do rather collect my plastic waste and hand it in for recycling/energy generation.

Probably into the ocean 🤷‍♀️ Makes me sad to see all the plastic in there

@@-greenphone- I was gonna say I feel like they could of done some kinda runoff, and caught a lot of that and hauled it off to a Landfil.

@@squirrelhaggard3884 Of course they could! Who will pay for it? Not sure if every country has rich enough populace to afford the bucks on top of their regular electricity bill to finance sophisticated handling of floating garbage at their hydropower stations.

@@u1zha I assure you there’s plenty of money, considering money is a man-made thing

Xayaburi Province, Lao PDR.