Seabin’s unusual catch in Sydney Harbour

A floating rubbish bin has been installed in Sydney Harbour to scoop up the trash in the water, and it’s caught some surprising items.

We know coffee cups and straws are a big problem when it comes to plastic that shouldn’t end up in our oceans but staff at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium have been shocked at their other finds.

A new Seabin that’s been installed underneath the floating oceanarium has collected 10 tennis balls in a week, and even a football.

A Seabin is a floating rubbish bin that collects garbage from the ocean, designed to be near ports, marinas, and harbours.

Litter is sucked into the bin thanks to a pump which creates a flow of water and it’s then collected in a catch bag.

Claudette Rechtorik, head of the Sea Life Trust, said the bin worked 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in Darling Harbour with the potential to prevent up to 1.4 tonnes of marine litter from entering our oceans and harming our marine life.

“Plastic packaging, cigarette butts, straws and coffee cups remain the main culprits that we’re seeing being collected,” she said.

“We’ve also been really surprised by the number of tennis balls and even footballs that have been collected by the Seabin in just one week.

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Straws are one of the most common things to end up in our waterways.

The new Seabin at Sea Life aquarium even collected a football.

“While a lost ball may seem harmless, this is a stark reminder litter and waste of all shapes and sizes will likely end up in our oceans and potentially be eaten by a beautiful sea creature.

“We can all, individually, do more to reduce the amount of plastic entering in our waterways by taking simple steps such as choosing to use a reusable coffee cup, avoiding plastic bags, opting not to buy water bottles and binning our butts.

The Sea Life Trust, in partnership with Sydney by Kayak, aims to install another three Seabins in Sydney over the next 12 months.

The Seabin sucks in all kinds of items.

Sydney received its first permanent Seabin in February.

Dozens of countries now have Seabins installed to help clean up their waterways after Perth locals Pete Ceglinski and Andrew Turton came up with the Seabin Project in 2015.

The organisation is being bombarded with an increasing number of orders from all over the world.

There are now 719 around the world capturing 2804.1kg of rubbish a day.

Between 10 and 20 million tons of plastic end up in our oceans each year and by 2050 it is estimated there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish, according to Worldwatch Institute.