Sydney has become the first city in the world to collect and monitor marine waste 24/7 thanks to Seabin and the City of Sydney’s Environmental Performance Innovation grants program.
Seabin CEO and co-founder Pete Ceglinski and City of Sydney Councillor HY William Chan launched this year the world’s first Seabin 6.0, which has the capability to filter 55,000 litres per hour – resulting in greater collection and greater positive impact for Sydney Harbour.
Marking World Oceans Day on 8 June 2022, Councillor Chan said the new Seabin in Sydney Harbour would help continue the City’s crucial work towards a clean and swimmable harbour.
“As part of our community-led Sustainable Sydney 2030-2050 vision, we’re committed to transforming Sydney into a water-sensitive city and unlocking the harbour’s potential by opening up our waterways and the foreshore to the public,” Councillor Chan said.
“The environmental vision and extraordinary innovation of Seabin will only make this goal more attainable as we work towards creating a sustainable and resilient Sydney, including a clean and swimmable harbour for all,” he said.
Councillor Chan noted that World Oceans Day was an important time for Sydney to reflect on our collective efforts towards sustainability and advocacy for climate action, particularly on the role of communities to continue applying pressure on the federal government and private industry to play their part in addressing environmental resilience.
Seabin launched its Smart City Pilot in 2020 and aims to be active in 100 cities by 2050. From June 2020 to January 2022, the program has filtered over 6.5 billion litres of water and collected 31.3 tonnes of marine debris, extracting plastics, microplastics, fuel, oil and other contaminants from Sydney Harbour.
“Our goal is to have 100 cities working toward cleaner oceans by 2050. I believe that 100 cities can change the world,” said Ceglinski.
“We can focus on behavioural change, policymaking and prevention. We can better understand the health of our waterways, and in turn, the health of our oceans, and even measure the success of solutions,” he said.
The City of Sydney is supporting Seabin’s Smart City Program by sponsoring units across Sydney. The Seabins are installed at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium wharf, Australian National Maritime Museum wharf, Pyrmont Bay and Jones Bay Wharf.
In addition to the placement of the units, Seabin will also be launching an Ocean Health Data platform, which will enable the City of Sydney, local citizen scientists and the community to login and access almost real-time data for each Seabin unit.
“The City of Sydney is proud to sponsor Seabin’s ground-breaking and crucial work by tackling plastic pollution through data collection, cleanup, community engagement and education,” Councillor Chan said.
The work of Seabin will go towards supporting the long-term principles of the City of Sydney’s draft vision and community strategic plan, Sustainable Sydney 2030-2050: Continuing the Vision.