Summary Reader Response Draft #1

 According to the article “Introducing the Seabin Project” (Jateff, 2018), The Seabin project highlights the damage microplastics can cause to the ocean’s ecosystem and both the functionality and benefits of the Seabin. In the article Jateff highlights marine mammals and birds in particular which ingest these plastics accidentally. The article explains that the Seabin functions by acting like a "large pool skimmer" that is powered from using a "110 or 220 V motor" to create a vortex, sucking debris out of the water and into the bag that is within the bin while pushing clean water back out. The article also explains that the Seabin team are still developing it to be carbon-free, with the use of solar panels to power it and also to develop a recycled material catch-bag. The project also serves not only as an individual effort by the organization but also calls for community involvement in an attempt to provide long term solutions to sea pollution.

The article explains that the Seabin was able to capture a stunning "90,000 shopping bags per year". The article "Coles and Woolworths' plastic bag ban and the choices that remains”, (2018), states that Australian's government from Woolworths and Coles are planning to phase out the use of shopping bags which billions of them could end up in their landfill or oceans.

Jateff mentioned that the Seabin is placed strategically at “heavily-trafficked waterways” to maximize collection. From the article “plastic pollution” (Ritchie and Roser,2018), at the global level, it is best estimated that 80 percent of ocean plastics comes from land-based sources. The Seabin project when placed at the correct location where there is heavily-traffic area can help to reduced the number of plastics ending up in the ocean.

The article mentioned that the way Seabin functions is acting like a “large pool skimmer”. This is one of the advantages of using a Seabin because debris such as plastic bottles and plastic bag tend to float above the surface of the water which if it’s near a Seabin device, it could be sucked into the bag and potentially reduce the number of plastics entering ocean which later on would sink into the ocean floor and potentially eaten by marine animals.

A major advantage of Seabin is the team intend to make the bin 100 percent recyclable. Which is a step forward into making the entire project environmentally friendly which its original idea is the prevent plastic pollution in the ocean which also making sure they are also sticking to their idea of saving the ocean from plastic pollution.

 In conclusion, this device will be the future for combatting plastic pollution in our ocean. The design of the Seabin can be further improved to cater to larger storage of plastic waste. Although this project is only one of the few devices that was successful in reducing the plastic waste. This movement by the team will create a trend for other smaller or bigger company to join in this battle to make our ocean plastic waste free.

While the Seabin on its own is able to alleviate physical ocean pollution, the efficacy of the project is largely determined the cooperation by companies, Non-Governmental organisation and governments.

Reference

Jateff, E. (2018). Introducing the Seabin Project. Australian National Maritime Museum. https://www.sea.museum/2018/06/08/introducing-the-seabin-project

Ritchie and Roser. (2018). Plastic Pollution. https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution

Mapstone, T. (2019). Coles and Woolworths' plastic bag ban and the choices that remains https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-13/40-year-old-plastic-bag-found-in-waterway/11197892