It?s a gloomy thought that people intentionally pollute the earth without a second thought — as if the planet were put here to be their personal garbage can. While many people do trash the earth intentionally, a lot of the trash in the oceans got there unintentionally. People spend a day at the beach or out on the marina and a piece of trash blows away before they can grab it (Johnson,2018).

It is our new life predicament. No one is the perfect steward of the earth, even if we try to be (Johnson,2018).

The trash is there. The damage is done (Johnson,2018). Even if we put measures into place right now to stop any additional trash from entering the ocean, we?re already in a pretty big pickle (Johnson,2018).

So, let?s talk about what we can do right now to get the trash out of the water:

• Formulate a clean-up whereby people gather each piece of trash by hand, much like land-based clean-up squads.
• Or, we can look to people who are already taking steps to get and keep the trash out of the water, like the owners of Seabin, and follow their lead (Johnson,2018).

So what is Seabin?

Seabin is a project. It is a research and development branch of Australian technology innovation company Seabin, has created a floating, bucket-shaped trash bin for use at marinas, private pontoons, residential lakes, inland waterways, ports harbours and yacht clubs (Johnson,2018). It can even be fitted to super yachts and motor yachts!

 

Image credit: The Seabin Project, 2018.

It?s a pretty amazing system that has been designed to catch everything from trash to oil to fuel spills to detergents, with the goal of preventing ocean pollution (Johnson,2018). If we can catch all the trash that?s near shore before it moves too far off the coast, we can ultimately help keep trash from moving to and becoming part of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (Johnson,2018).

It sounds too good to be true? Right? Luckily, Seabin is a reality. It?s something that can be implemented everywhere now to reduce ocean pollution (Johnson,2018).

Think of it this way, if every dock in the world and every pontoon boat and every yacht and so on had a Seabin, what would the effects be? Not only would you get all the trash out of the water, but plastics that get taken away by the water and consequently drown and kill animals like whales and turtles would be a thing of the past. There would not be no more fish or mammals dying due to eating plastics and trash. The fish we catch out of our waters would be healthier, heartier and ultimately better for us to eat (Johnson,2018).

Reference: Johnson,. C. 2018. Seabin Project Aims to Reduce Ocean Pollution. [Online]. Available: https://earth911.com/eco-tech/ocean-pollution-seabin-project/. June 5, 2018. Accessed: June 11, 2018. (and Cover picture).