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A volume of seawater equivalent to roughly 5,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools has been skimmed clean of microplastics and other pollution — thanks to a small start-up founded by two surfers in Australia.
According to the latest annual report from their company, Seabin, the start-up’s marine clean-up and tracking operations in Sydney successfully expanded to Los Angeles and Philadelphia last year.
After just one year of operation at Marina Del Ray in Los Angeles, Seabin’s ocean skimmers have reportedly captured over 7,300 pounds of litter from ocean surfaces off the coast of California.
The Seabins can also use special oil absorbent pads, capable of skimming away the grimy sheen of fuel pollution, surface oils, soaps and detergents.
After just one year of operation at Marina Del Ray in Los Angeles, Seabin’s ocean skimmers have captured over 7,300 pounds of litter from marine surfaces off the California coast
Peter Ceglinski and Andrew Turton (pictured), from Perth, spent four years developing the ‘Seabin’ in a bid to solve one of the biggest issues facing the world’s oceans – coming up with their automated, trash-skimming prototype in 2015
Seabin reported $1 million in revenue last spring, thanks to its new business model.
The company now sells detailed environmental data harvested during clean-up to corporate sponsors looking to spruce up their own images.
‘Our 2020 pivot was significant,’ said Seabin’s CEO and co-founder Pete Ceglinski.
‘We cut loose a business model that included 53 countries to focus on cleaning up entire cities: a free service to our old clients paid for by corporates.’
Ceglinski — an industrial engineer and lifelong surfer who founded Seabin with a surfing buddy in 2015 — said that the crucial change making this possible was a pivot to collecting ‘credible and transparent nature-repair data.’
This lucrative new environmental data collection, Ceglinski said, means Seabin is ‘adding value to our clients’ sustainability portfolios while holding true to our mission of creating a positive impact on the ocean.’
Seabin’s 12V submersible water pump pulls in only water from the top 10 millimeters the aquatic surface: high enough to grab free-floating debris without trapping marine life
The current version of the Seabin, the V5 Hybrid, runs on 110V/120V power at a cost that, by the company’s estimates, amounts to less than $1 a day.
The device’s 12V submersible water pump pulls in only water from the top 10 millimeters of the aquatic surface, high enough to grab free-floating debris without accidentally trapping fish or other marine animals.
Seabin’s V5 catch bag, which is capable of filtering out microplastics down to 2 millimeters in diameter, is made of a durable, burlap-like natural fiber called ‘Hessian’ or ‘Jute.’
‘Seabin is currently trialing fish deterrent technology,’ the company reported on a recent spec sheet, ‘to ensure the marine life is safe around the V5 hybrid.’
‘But to date, this has not been an issue.’
According to the company, even more sustainable variations can power Seabin’s energy-efficient pumps with wind or solar.
Seabin’s V5 catch bag, which is capable of filtering out microplastics down to 2 millimeters in diameter, is made of a durable, burlap-like natural fiber called ‘Hessian’ or ‘Jute’
The company now sells detailed environmental data harvested during clean-up to corporate sponsors looking to spruce up their own images
As Ceglinski told the World Economic Forum, Seabin hopes to ratchet up to the ‘100 cities by 2050’ campaign. Sydney and Los Angeles have become its first two ‘smart cities’ within this new project.
With the Marina Del Rey project in LA, the team projects that they will be able to remove about 54 tons of microplastics, plastic fibers and other items from the California coast by 2025, with nearly four tons already collected.
But the smaller pilot program in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has shown promise, too.
Six Seabin units in the Delaware River collected a total of 879,718 items of marine litter in 2022, according to their latest annual report.
The Philadelphia project filtered approximately 795 million liters of water from the river, Seabin’s report said, or about 300 Olympic-sized swimming pools of liquid.
When they first devised their idea, Ceglinski and his surfer friend Andrew Turton met in Perth, Australia, but were living as surfing nomads in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
‘I was a product designer in another life, and it was my job to make plastic products,’ Turton told Surfer magazine in 2016.
‘After a while, I realized that we didn’t need the stuff I was making, so I stopped,’ he recalled. ‘There’s nothing worse than being out there surrounded by plastic.’
As his co-founder Ceglinski told Daily Mail Australia back in 2019, the duo managed to raise $300,000 to launch Seabin via the investment website Indiegogo within the space of just two months — far surpassing their initial goal of $230,000.
Back in those early days, when the company’s business model was selling Seabins directly to cities and municipalities, Ceglinski traveled the world getting an up-close look at the many bizarre things people just throw away.
‘The weirdest thing we have collected, he said, ‘was probably a cowboy boot with a mini pineapple inside, which was found in San Diego.’
However, seeing so much of humanity’s actual garbage has not given him second thoughts or left Ceglinski demoralized.
‘The current climate crisis is dire,’ he said, ‘but as an eternal optimist, I believe we can fix it or at least try our best to learn from our mistakes.’
This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk
