In 2015, two surfers from Perth, Andrew Turton and Pete Ceglinski, gained international attention with their prototype of their innovative invention, the Seabin, designed to capture floating plastics in the ocean. The idea was borne out of the pair’s frustration with the rubbish that was polluting the local seas. The mission of the Seabin Project is ‘to have pollution-free oceans for our future generations’.
After a successful crowd-funding campaign, the commercial production of the invention began. The Seabin is roughly the same size as a standard rubbish bin, with a capacity to collect 20kg of waste at a time. The Seabin is designed to trap trash, oil, fuel, and detergents and has been installed in various harbours around the world. The device is also capable of catching microplastics as small as 2mm.
The Seabin acts like a pool filter, sucking in debris and trapping it in an internal ‘catch bag’. The clean water is then pumped back into the ocean. Seabins also have a motor that creates little noise and is not harmful to marine life.
The Seabin Project believes this innovation is not the solution to the marine pollution crisis but in the areas the bins are installed in, it is a definitely a step in the right direction. The Seabins are installed in harbours in Europe, the UK, Australia, Japan, and the USA.
Image: Facebook / The Seabin Project
