Seabin II installed at Fischereihafen in Bremerhaven

For one year now, the marine garbage collector “Seabin” installed by bremenports has been busy fishing up to four kilos of waste a day from the water in Kaiserhafen. “Seabin II” has now been assembled and lowered into the water in Fischereihafen.

The technology company RelyOn Nutec Deutschland asked to cooperate with bremenports. As the water at Fischereihafen port belongs to Bremerhaven Economic Development Company BIS, that company is also involved in the project. RelyOn contributed to the cost of acquisition, provides the electric power and empties the marine litterbin, while bremenports employees attend to waste disposal and maintenance of the Seabin every six to eight weeks. This involves hoisting the Seabin out of the water with a crane, removing biofilm growth as well as cleaning and checking the pump. In winter, the Seabin is moved to its winter quarters at bremenports, because it is susceptible to storm, ice, snow and high waves. The parties involved in the project have agreed to cooperate for the next five years.

bremenports Managing Director Robert Howe thanked everyone involved for the good cooperation: “Our experience to date has shown that our efforts are worthwhile. Together, we are making a small but important contribution towards more environmental protection at the port.”

This innovative garbage collector floats on the water surface and continuously sucks in water through a filter system to clean the water and thus protect the environment. The waterproof bag can hold 20 litres and filters particles with a size of 2mm or more. The Seabin has a non-toxic and highly resistant antifouling system that prevents the occurrence of biofilm to facilitate cleaning.

The Seabin was developed by an Australian company which has marketed these products on a commercial scale since 2018. Since then, around 860 Seabins have been installed in ports, marinas and rivers throughout the world.

This marine litterbin is an innovative and comparatively inexpensive option for continuously removing small amounts of plastic that float on the surface of the water. Quite apart from this highly practical benefit, a Seabin also draws attention to the fact that plastic is polluting our rivers and oceans and raises awareness of the importance of a clean environment.

bremenports also received support in promoting environmental awareness from three pupils of Geschwister Scholl School in Bremerhaven. They collected and analysed the garbage trapped in Seabin I over a period of several weeks and won two first prizes for doing so: first prize in the Earth and Space Science category of the regional round of “Jugend forscht”, a contest for young scientists, as well as the special award “Reset Plastic”. This qualifies them to take part in the next round of the competition at Federal Land level, which takes place in Bremen today.

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