Cleaner port waters

The award winning ‘Seabin’ has been installed at Plymouth Yacht Haven in Mount Batten to collect debris, plastics and microplastics from the water with the ability to collect over one tonne of marine waste each year.

“Working and living by the water, we see first-hand the impact of marine litter and its effect on marine wildlife around Plymouth,” said Steve Kitchen, marina director at Plymouth Yacht Haven.

“We all share responsibility to keep the waters in Plymouth as clean and biodiverse as possible. The Seabin has a reputation worldwide to help clean up oceans and protect marine wildlife, so it’s great to have this installation at Plymouth Yacht Haven.”

Cleaner seas

Made from recyclable materials, the Seabin draws water in before pumping it through a fine mesh and collecting the resulting waste. Waste can then be collected from the basket and recycled.

After being developed in 2016 in Australia, there are now almost 1000 Seabins worldwide with this bin being the first permanently located in the city of Plymouth. The device, which is made from fully recycled materials, has the ability to hold up to 20kg of litter at a time and can capture over 1.4 tonnes of debris per year.

Just months after Plymouth City Council declared an urgent need for ocean recovery in a ‘Motion for the Ocean’, the city became the UK’s first National Marine Park. 

The bin was donated by Plymouth-based marine firm, Boskalis Westminster. 

This is just one step which Plymouth Yacht Haven is taking to improve sustainability on the Mount Batten Peninsula.

It also signed up to The Wildlife Trust’s “30 Days Wild” campaign running throughout June. During this time, the team installed bug hotels, wildflower gardens and bird feeders around the marina to increase biodiversity on-site. 

The team behind the autonomous Waste Shark vessel also ran demonstrations on-site and organised litter picks on Mount Batten beach.