Inventor of contraption to collect rubbish from the ocean blasts City of Sydney council

The inventor of a device designed to suck up hundreds of tonnes of rubbish from the ocean says the City of Sydney council will not help him get a large-scale trial.

The man behind a contraption capable of sucking hundreds of tonnes of plastic rubbish out of the ocean has spoken of his frustration with the City of Sydney council, claiming it refused to back the environmental game-changer, despite pledging multiple times to support the initiative.

Pete Ceglinski, the co-founder and CEO of trash-buster Seabin, accused the council of “ping-ponging” responsibility to help with a trial currently underway in Sydney Harbour, which has already resulted in six tonnes of rubbish being removed from the iconic water body.

It comes after two notices of motion — the first of which was unanimously accepted in October 2019 — were embraced by City of Sydney councillors imploring it to help with a large-scale trial of the technology.

One of the seabins in action showing the rubbish it has collected. Picture: John Appleyard

While pledging no funds, the motion agreed the City of Sydney would help investigate ways to expand and support the project. However, 16 months on from the first call to action, Mr Ceglinski said he had heard “crickets” from the council.

“We’ve heard nothing,” he said. “None of us have had to deal with a city before, so we had envisaged a bit of lag time, but (this length of time) is really frustrating and ­disappointing.”

The business has self-funded a trial in Sydney Harbour since July last year which Mr Ceglinski said had already collected six tonnes of waste.

The hi-tech bins sit on the surface of the water, collecting floating debris and plastics, with the trash adding to an extensive dataset of what waste is choking local waterways.

The seabin is like a pool filter which floats in the water and slowly takes in rubbish like plastic bags. Picture: John Appleyard

Councillor Christine Forster took aim at council leadership over the lack of support, saying: “It’s a great local Australian invention that delivers tremendous environmental outcomes and despite that council has sat on its hands and done nothing.’’

A City of Sydney spokesperson distanced it from the move, saying the council “is not responsible for cleaning litter in the harbour”, but added the council had looked at ways to “best support” the project “within the limitations” of the LGA.

Originally published as Inventor of contraption to collect rubbish from the ocean blasts City of Sydney council