Surfers launch Seabin Project to protect waters from trash, oil

Dive Brief:

Two Australian surfers, Andrew Turton and Pete Ceglinski, have launched the Seabin Project — an initiative to combat water pollution with automated trash bins, designed for residential lakes, marinas, harbors, ports, and other similar waterways.

The concept of the bin is similar to a skimmer box for a pool, according to Seabin spokesperson Richard Talmage. Once installed on a dock, a pump sucks water into the bin to collect trash, oil, fuel, and detergents. The clean, filtered water is then pumped back out to sea.
While the team has only built a prototype, they have turned to Indiegogo to take their project to the next level. Outside of just building more Seabins, they wish to create Seabins using recycled materials, launch educational programs, and even turn collected trash into energy. As of Tuesday morning, the Seabin Project raised more than $86,400 of its $230,000 goal.

Dive Insight:

In October, the Ocean Conservancy reported that 8 million metric tons of plastic end up in the oceans each year. While organizations like the Conservancy push for goals to reduce debris from waterways, it takes innovative ideas — like that of the Seabin Project — to make those goals a reality.

Seabins are strictly designed for controlled waterways due to the amount of human activity around them, as well as the winds and currents constantly pushing trash toward the shore. "Sure we cant catch everything right now but its a really positive start," reads the Seabin Project website.

For the debris that the Seabins can't catch, there are other young inventors hoping to tackle the issue. 21-year-old Boyan Slat has developed The Ocean Cleanup, an organization with plans to build a 62-mile wall in the shape of a "V" in the waters between Hawaii and California. The wall would be designed to collect a substantial portion of all the waste in the North Pacific.

"We hope to make millions of people aware of the problem itself, as well as making the problem visible," Slat told The Huffington Post. "By showing there is a way, we can make it better."