The Seabin, created by Australians Andrew Turton and Pete Ceglinski, is an automated garbage bin that sits in the water of marinas, private pontoons, inland waterways, residential lakes, harbors, water ways, ports and yacht clubs. The Seabin floats on the water's surface and suck water into it, also pulling in any garbage and debris, the garbage is captured in a bag made of natural fiber, and the water is pulled into a pump located on the shore, or the dock, which separates out any oil in the water, and then pumps the clean water back into the ocean.
Andrew Turton and Pete Ceglinski were inspired to create the Seabin, because they were tired of having to surf in waters teeming with garbage. Their solution, the Seabin is low maintenance, and can be operated by a single person working at the docks. Rather than the traditional method of having people go out into the waters to clean up the garbage, the Seabin uses the pump to bring the garbage into one location and make it easy for one person to remove garbage from the water with much less effort. Additionally, some of the captured plastic can be used to produce more Seabins to capture more garbage.
Andrew and Pete attacked the problem of ocean garbage and pollution in a new way, and their unconventional idea provides more efficient and easier way to clean the garbage in the water. The Seabin project has been warmly received by the public, especially within the surfer community. The creators have a working prototype, and their crowdfunding page on Indiegogo has raised $267,767 USD from over seven thousand backers.
Works cited
ReplyDeletehttp://www.seabinproject.com
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cleaning-the-oceans-one-marina-at-a-time#/
http://www.gizmag.com/seabin-ocean-trash/41023/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3tjOEtoArg
Initially when reading about the seabin, I thought of two weeks ago in class when we talked about expertise. The seabin, created by two surfers, is something that really shows "thinking outside of the box." It then struck me that people have been cleaning up oceans for years. It aligned perfectly with the idea presented in class that experts on a subject are possibly too close to a situation to really think outside of the box. The prior methods were seemingly much less efficient yet this somewhat simple idea has yet to have been thought of. The creative process for the seabin stemmed from two men who, to my knowledge, are not experts on sustainability or ocean clean ups.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I find this invention to be of significant importance. Sometimes I find that inventions seem to bring no huge significance to better mankind. This is not to say that creativity for the sake of creativity is not valuable, but even in my own life I search for purpose in a tangible way. An invention to make cleaning up the oceans easier and more effective is of great interest to me. I would be so excited to see more of this seabin in different areas and more of sustainability inventions throughout the world. That being said, I do have a few questions. For example, how does the water pump work? If it uses electricity, how efficient is the process? I would also be interested to do more research in the different areas that this seabin can realistically be implemented.