PortsToronto Launches Phase Two of Seabin Pilot Program In Toronto’s Inner Harbour

Following the success of this summer’s Seabin Pilot Program at Toronto’s Outer Harbour Marina, PortsToronto launched phase two of the project which includes the deployment of two additional Seabins in Toronto’s harbour. Secured to a floating dock positioned in the northeast corner of the York Street Slip, the new Seabins are the first to be installed in a North American harbour and can collect litter ranging from larger plastics to microplastics, as small as 2 millimetres, as well as hydrocarbons such as fuel and oil. With the capacity to collect upward of 4 kilograms of debris in one day, filtering as much as 1.4 metric tons of trash per year, the new Seabins are strategically positioned in the slip to enable the wind and currents to push debris in the Seabins’ direction.
 
To ensure that the Seabins also serve a research and education function, PortsToronto has taken the added step of partnering with the University of Toronto Trash Team on a student-research project led by Dr. Chelsea Rochman, Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. As part of this collaborative initiative, students from the Rochman Lab will collect and analyze the plastics and microplastics captured by the Seabins to determine the origination of some of these materials. This process will, in turn, better inform the Trash Team’s solutions-based research and community outreach program which ultimately seeks to increase waste literacy and prevent plastics and microplastics from entering waterways in the first place.
 
Seabins were invented in 2014 by Australian surfers who were concerned by the amount of plastic pollution in the ocean. The Seabin works by moving up and down with the natural flow of water, collecting all floating debris. Water is sucked in from the surface and passes through a catch bag inside the Seabin, with a submersible water pump capable of displacing 25.000 LPH (litre per hour), plugged directly into 110/22V outlet. The water is then pumped back into the harbour leaving litter and debris trapped in the catch bag to be disposed of properly.
 
Poralu Marine manufactures Seabins and Water Products & Solutions is the exclusive supplier in North America.
 
To read more about PortsToronto’s Seabin Pilot Program, visit portstoronto.com.