Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Oh, patents! The Seabin™

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Invented by a surfer, the Aussie Seabin™ is an innovative way of removing the tons of trash that floats around marinas, and large city ports and harbors. Trash such as plastic bottles, food containers, pieces of twine, oil, and microplastic particles down to 2 mm. The pump-operated Seabin™ functions 24/7, 365 days/year, using little energy (500 watts and 4 amps), which might be wind-, solar- or wave-powered.

The 860 Seabins™, already deployed in pollution hotspots such as the Sydney Harbour in Australia, and the Port of Los Angeles, have collected more than 3300 tons of sea trash. Altogether, 150 million tons of trash are estimated to pollute the world's oceans. The ultimate goal is to achieve net positive vs. net zero plastic removal. In other words, the goal is to remove more plastic than is actually discarded in the ocean (net positive) vs. removing the same amount of plastic that is discarded (net zero), and keeping the amount of ocean trash constant. Servicing of the bins (i.e., emptying and cleaning them) also includes analysis of the debris collected to provide feedback to urban planners, the port or harbor authorities.

The video below shows the Seabin™ vortex collecting trash from the surface of the water (with no harm to the fish population since the Seabin™ operates on the surface of the water).


The Seabin™ invention was patented. Among a family of 13 patents, the US utility patent, US10954642B2, titled Waste Collection Device, was awarded on March 23, 2021 to Peter Ceglinski, the inventor of the Seabin™. The patent family members include:

The US10954642B2 patent describes a waste collection device that draws water from the surface of a body of water into a receptacle. The water is captured in a basket within the receptacle. The water is simultaneously pumped out of the receptacle, causing the basket to fall and allow more water in-flow, while retaining debris and waste within the basket. Below, the abstract of the invention together with the Figure 1 of the Seabin™ waste collection device. 
A waste collection device (10) comprising a receptacle (12) having an opening (24) in an upper end and a tubular member (28) mounted for sliding movement within the opening (24). A pump is provided for pumping water outwardly from within the receptacle (12) and a basket is provided within the tubular member (28). The tubular member (28) comprises a cylindrical inner wall (32) and a cylindrical outer wall (33) connected at upper and lower ends thereof to define an annular chamber (36) to provide buoyancy to the tubular member (28). [Abstract US10954642B2]

Reference

Seabin™ (website)

https://seabin.io/home 

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