Summary Analysis Draft #4

Introducing the Seabin Project – Summary Analysis Draft #4

MEC 1281

Summary Analysis

Draft #4

By Claire Chia

1st April 2021

The article “Introducing the Seabin Project”, Jateff, (2018) describes how two surfers quit their jobs to create an ocean garbage collector named Seabin as they grew tired of swimming in garbage. Jateff states that plastic is a major contributor to ocean pollution and how Seabin can help to solve this issue. Seabin is an ocean rubbish bin that uses a motor that is powered from the shore to inject water so that the vortex created can pull the debris into a catch-bag and the Seabin also contain oil absorbent pads that cleans the seawater of petroleum-based oils and detergents. Additionally, the Seabin is able to collect rubbish from a 2-6 meter radius under good weather conditions and the Seabin should be placed strategically in places with congested waterways. The Seabin team is still working on improving the Seabin by making a reprocessed catch-bag and using solar power. According to Jateff, the aim of this project is to "collaborate with corporations, governments, and non-profits" to develop and create lifelong solutions to ocean plastic pollution. While the Seabin is a good solution for collecting some ocean plastic pollution, it is only capable of collecting floating rubbish, rubbish of limited size and it can only collect rubbish from a distance of 2-6 meters under good weather conditions.

A problem with the Seabin is that it is unable to collect large rubbish such as 20L containers and foamed polystyrene. This is a problem as according to Akester, foamed polystyrene like buoys, cool boxes is often used in fisheries, aquaculture, and water sports, and these items are used on water which poses as a direct contributor to ocean plastic pollution. If the foamed polystyrene is left untouched, it can cause significant harm to the marine life as once foamed polystyrene is in the ocean, the waves will break it down into “bite-size pieces” and the marine life might mistake the broken down foamed polystyrene as food and consume it which can lead to internal damage to the marine life.

Another problem with the Seabin is that it works as a “trash skimmer and debris interceptor.” As the Seabin is designed to only collect floating debris, it is located at the surface of the water, leaving the rubbish beneath the surface of the water untouched. Thus, Seabin does not really help solve the issue of ocean plastic pollution. According to Helinski et al.(2021), “Ridding our rivers of plastic: A framework for plastic pollution capture device selection”, most of the devices only capture floating microplastic while a majority of microplastic still remain at the bottom of the ocean.

Lastly, another issue with the Seabin is that it is only able of collecting rubbish from a distance of 2-6 meters under good weather conditions as the Seabin is designed for waterbodies with a still environment. This is an issue as weather conditions are hard to predict and under bad weather conditions, the effectiveness of the Seabin is greatly reduced. According to Schmaltz et al.(2020), “Plastic pollution solutions: emerging technologies to prevent and collect marine pollution”, while the Seabin is noteworthy, its current range and global implementation are limited compared to their capability. Compared to Seabin, there is another ocean clean-up device called Mr. Trash Wheel which is capable of collecting floating rubbish of more than six meters. Mr. Trash Wheel is equipped with containment booms which makes it able to collect rubbish from a distance of more than six meters.

In conclusion, even though there are areas for the Seabin to improve, I believe that in the future, Seabin will be able to make a more significant contribution in helping with the ocean plastic pollution.

References

Akester, H. (2019). How big a problem is ocean polystyrene pollution? Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2019-12-big-problem-ocean-polystyrene-pollution.html#:~:text=Laboratory%20research%20suggests%20that%20foamed,such%20as%20fish%20or%20squid.

Helinski, O., Poor, C., & Wolfand, J. (2021). Ridding our rivers of plastic: A framework for plastic pollution capture device selection. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 145. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X21001296

Jateff, E. (2018). Introducing the Seabin Project. Retrieved from https://www.sea.museum/2018/06/08/introducing-the-seabin-project

Kormann, C. (2019). The promise of Mr. Trash Wheel. The New Yorker. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-promise-of-mr-trash-wheel

Schmaltz, E., Melvin, E., Diana, Z., Gunady, E., Rittschof, D., Somarelli, J., Virdin, J., & Dumphy-Daly, M. (2020). Plastic pollution solutions: emerging technologies to prevent and collect marine pollution. Environmental International, 144. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412020320225