Since 2019, Ocean Cleanup has made Malaysia a test location for The Interceptor, which is a river garbage cleaning vessel. After the Klang River was successfully used as a testing ground, the MHE-Demag facility in Klang was ordered to build The Interceptor for the Southeast Asian region. One of these ships has also received sponsorship from the group Coldplay.
Netherlands-based Ocean Cleanup announced they chose Kuala Lumpur as the location of their first regional office in the world. Kuala Lumpur's strategic location is the reason why it was chosen to be the regional center to facilitate more The Interceptor operating in Southeast Asia. The Interceptor also operates in Indonesia, Vietnam, with the next plan to start cleaning operations in Thailand as well.
The Interceptor works autonomously using batteries and can be recharged using solar panels on the roof. Each Interceptor can collect 50,000 kg of garbage per day. Therefore it does not have any impact on the environment and can work without noise pollution.
At the same time this gives it the ability to perform cleaning 24 hours a day. Ocean Clenup's target is to clean the 1000 dirtiest rivers in the world by 2025. The Klang River was chosen because it is among the 50 most polluting rivers in the world.