When keen surfers Andrew Turton and Pete Ceglinksi finally got tired of catching more plastic bags than waves out in the ocean, they quit their jobs, obtained some seed funding and developed the Seabin, an immersible rubbish filtering device. On World Oceans Day (June 8) Australian National Maritime Museum partnered with The Seabin Project to trial a device at their Fleet wharf. In 12 hours the bin collected over 10kg of rubbish. It’s a sad indication of the level of pollution in our harbour.
Seabin’s filtering system can capture plastic bags, plastic bottles, disposable cups, oil, sludge, cigarette butts, microfibres and other random rubbish. It currently uses an electric pump but the team are working on adapting solar-panels to provide zero-carbon power.
The inventors have already placed the device in waterways around the world and hope the demonstration at ANMM will help garner more local interest.
Hopefully in the near future they’ll develop a model that can collect discarded rental bikes.

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