Design Summary Analysis Final

Seabin Using Plastics to Fight Plastics

According to Seabin Using Plastic to Fight Plastic (2019), Seabin Project states that microplastics and microfibres are one of the greatest threats to the marine ecosystem. They collect organic pollutants faster than inorganic particles where marine animals will mistake them as food. The article states that microplastics and microfibres are plastics pieces that are smaller than 5 mm. The Seabin Project mentions that Seabin Technology captures and removes all surrounding debris and microplastics. A study was conducted and observed that Seabin was able to remove finer plastics, of sizes 2 to 5 mm in diameter. Mantra trawl is the standard sampling method where a special net is dragged behind a boat. The article mentions that the physical traits of the samples are near identical and that both mantra trawl and Seabin are effective in sampling microplastics. As explained in the article, the reason why Seabin is a preferred method is that it is reliable, time-saving and inexpensive.

One of the reasons why Seabin is the desired method is its reliability. As mentioned in Seabin Floating trash Collector, One Clarion states that not only plastic wastes are gathered, but also stormwater debris which comes from the city’s water system are captured and contained as well. It further explained that by doing so, Seabins assist communities in clearing the pollutants and keeping the environment clean. Most of the residues that got caught in the catch bags are items like plastic bags, cigarette butts, fishing gear and many more. These pollutants are causing marine life to be at risk. In the statistics shown in Plastic Ain’t So Fantastic (2020), Ocean Crusaders educates us that plastics take a long time to degenerate and that close to a hundred thousand marine animals died due to plastic entanglement and that these are only the ones found. Who knows that there are more out there in the waters that have yet to be discovered?  

Another reason that makes Seabin a chosen method is because of how timesaving it is. In the first article, One Clarion also mentions that Seabins consistently pumps the collected trash-filled water from the water bodies and filters the water through reusable catch bags continuously all day for the whole year round if the Seabins are maintained properly by the city. According to their statistics, these floating bins filter out 3.9 kilograms of debris after pumping 25 litres of water per hour each day. All the user left to do is diligently change the catch bags when its full to ensure that the Seabins are in optimal working condition.

Another factor that made Seabin recognisable is how relatively cheap it is. A mentioned in Marina Enlist Floating Garbage Collector to Clean Waterways. (2019), Mia Overton states that each Seabin unit costs about $4000 (US), which is quite a reasonable price. Operating all day long at less than $3 a day, it is way better than having human labour to do this job. Profit is not the aim of this project but to solve this crisis is the main agenda. Hence, Seabin has been working under a business model since 2015 where half of the profit they made is used for non-profit activities like creating awareness on this as they believe that education is the key to overcome this situation.

References:

Seabin using plastic to fight plastics. (2019). Seabin Project. Retrieved from https://seabinproject.com/seabin-using-plastic-to-fight-plastics/

Seabin Floating Trash Collector. One Clarion. Retrieved from https://www.clarionmunicipal.com/floating-trash-collector.html

Plastic Ain’t So Fantastic. (2020). Ocean Crusaders. Retrieved from http://oceancrusaders.org/plastic-crusades/plastic-statistics/ 

Marinas Enlist Floating Garbage collector to Clean Waterways. (2019). Marina Dock Age. Retrieved from https://www.marinadockage.com/marinas-enlist-floating-garbage-collector-to-clean-waterways/?fbclid=img%20Marinas%20Enlist%20Floating%20Garbage%20Collector%20to%20Clean%20Waterways