A unique floating vacuum for marine pollution invented by two Australian surfers is now being rolled out in Australian waters following a successful crowdfunding campaign that began in 2016. 

The Seabin Project began when two Australian surfers, Andrew Turton and Pete Ceglinski, got fed up with sharing the waves with waste and quit their jobs to find a solution. They invented the “Seabin”, which is essentially a floating trashcan that automatically collects and stores floating debris to be disposed of later. 

As the Seabin bobs along, water (and any waste in it) is sucked into the device and passed through a catch bag contained within. The water is then pumped out of the bottom leaving litter and debris trapped in the catch bag.

Seabins have now been installed in 25 different countries around the world and at the beginning of this year the first two Australian Seabins were installed at the Australian National Maritime Museum and the Parramatta River. The City of Cockburn in Western Australia recently became the latest Australian municipality to install the device while the City of Melbourne and Port Macquarie Council have also committed to installing the devices this year. The City of Cockburn is already seeing results after just over a month of having the device in the water.

“We realise the Seabin is not going to be the answer to all our marine debris problems, but it is a great local solution for this area,” Nicki Ledger, the council’s waste education officer, told ABC News.

“We’re catching a lot of little plastics, lots of polystyrene beads, cigarette butts. We’re getting those out of the water so they can’t do any harm to our local wildlife.”

The Seabin is advertised as being able to catch an estimated 1.5kg of debris per day, though it has a 20kg capacity and the City of Cockburn’s device recently collected over 3kg of waste in a single day.

 

Positive Action

• To find out more or to find out a Seabin can be purchased for your local marine environment, visit the Seabin Project.
• For information on how to correctly recycle or dispose of your waste to avoid it getting in waterways, visit RecyclingNearYou.

 

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Positive Environment News has been compiled using publicly available information. Planet Ark does not take responsibility for the accuracy of the original information and encourages readers to check the references before using this information for their own purposes.