New Seabin installed at Penarth Marina

We're excited to announce the installation of a new Seabin in Penarth Marina within the Cardiff Bay Barrage. The innovative floating plastic waste basket is kindly sponsored by UK-headquartered consulting engineering company, Mott MacDonald, and is a revolution in ocean cleaning technology.

Our  team at Penarth Marina already regularly collect rubbish all around the harbour, including water borne debris, and the Seabin will support this work by providing additional capacity to collect up to 20kg of waste, 24 hours a day. This equates to approximately 90,000 carrier bags, 50,000 plastic bottles, 35,700 disposable coffee cups or 117,000 plastic utensils. It can also skim the surface for oils and pollutants as well as microplastics, which the harbour team cannot collect.

The Seabin moves up and down with the tides collecting all floating rubbish. Water is sucked in from the surface with a submersible pump capable of displacing 25,000 litres per hour and passes through a catch bag inside. The water is then pumped back out leaving the litter and debris trapped inside until it can be disposed of properly.

The new Seabin forms part of our environmental program, Coastline Deadline, designed to back projects which have a positive and measurable impact on the coastline.

Stuart Jones, Penarth Marina Manager, comments, ‘’At boatfolk we take our environmental responsibilities very seriously. As a boating business the coastline is our lifeline, and we need to protect it for the generations to come. Our current focuses are marine wildlife, ocean plastics, clean water and renewable energy. We’re doing what we can to minimise our environmental impact and helping our community make positive changes too. Because we can’t be experts in everything, we work closely with charities and environmental partners that have goals aligned with ours and are already doing great things to protect the environment. Marinas and ports are the perfect place to start helping clean our oceans. There are no huge open ocean swells or storms, and it’s a relatively controlled environment. Whilst the wind and currents constantly move floating debris around in our seas, in harbours the predominant wind and current directions mean there are areas that are more consistently polluted. We are thrilled to have installed a Seabin at Penarth Marina. We will work closely with Mott Macdonald to identify what material is finding its way into the watercourse, why this is, and how to minimise it. Most of the UK’s Seabins have been installed in coastal locations. The Seabin at Penarth will be one of few where we can look at the issues of microplastics in a freshwater location.’’

Staff from the Mott MacDonald’s Cardiff office will visit the harbour regularly to help empty the Seabin. A spokesperson for Mott MacDonald, comments, “Having raised the profile of this technology, there is now a real impetus to continue installing the Seabins across the country. We are encouraging this through our Corporate Social Responsibility funds, collaboration with boatfolk and other organisations.”

To find out more about other Coastline Deadline projects please click here.