Seabin Project collects plastics, waste at Sydney Harbour

An Australian invention which could clean up the litter floating in our waterways has been put to use in Sydney Harbour and the Parramatta River.

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An Australian invention which could clean-up the litter floating in our waterways has been put to use in Sydney Harbour and the Parramatta River.

The Seabin is a floating rubbish bin which sits just below the water’s surface and can hold up to 20kg of rubbish. It can collect 3.4kg in a day.

The Seabin slowly sucks in rubbish floating in Sydney Harbour. Picture: John Appleyard

Its pump sucks water from the surface, and draws rubbish inside. The device is usually mounted on a wharf.

The Seabin has been put to use in the harbour outside the National Maritime Museum at Pyrmont, and in the Parramatta River at Cabarita Point.

CEO Pete Ceglinski and co-founder Andrew Turton created the Seabin after noticing marine waste during overseas travels.

“We saw bottles, bags - the only thing that changed was the language on the litter,” Mr Ceglinski said.

Pete Ceglinski takes the filter bag from the Seabin outside the National Maritime Museum at Pyrmont. Picture: John Appleyard

“We thought ‘if we can have rubbish bins on the land, why don’t we have them in the water’.”

The product design and manufacturing costs were made a little easier after appealing for donations online.

The team received $362,000 from people across the world.

Mr Ceglinski said designing the Seabin so that it would adjust to sit below the water’s surface despite tidal movements took several years.

“We probably failed about 300 to 400 times before we got it right,” he said.

The Seabin may reduce the workload for Cabarita resident Bill Wallbank, who often collects waste from the Parramatta River. Picture: John Appleyard

The team first based itself in Spain due to its large marina industry, according to Mr Ceglinski.

Marina operators and governments have adopted the Seabin, and about 450 are being used in 27 countries.

Mr Ceglinski hopes more can be put to use in Australia.

The Seabins at Pyrmont and Cabarita have been funded by collection and sorting systems provider Tomra and computer giant Hewlett Packard respectively.

The Seabin is capable of sucking in small marine life, such as bait fish and jellyfish. This rarely happened however, according to Mr Ceglinski.

He said most creatures could sense the current and avoid it.

He is working with marine scientists to reduce any impact on marine life.

“There are some locations we don’t put the Seabin because of the abundance of marine life,” he said.

A Seabin is available for $5,500.