Design Summary and Analysis Final Draft - Seabin using plastic to fight plastics

The article "Seabin using plastic to fight plastics" (2019) describes the dangers of micro fibers and micro plastics in water bodies and introduces the Seabin technology as a possible method to tackle this problem by elaborating on its functions and discussing future improvements. 

Micro plastics and micro fibers are a big issue for aquatic life as well as for humanity itself. These "organic pollutants", which measure up to 5mm in diameter, are digested by aquatic life, which in turn gets eaten by us humans. The Seabin technology functions by trapping water and filtering out the trash. The article states that with the addition of sensors implanted onto the Seabin, observations can be made on the amount of micro plastics and micro fibers lying in open waters. With further improvements made to the Seabin technology, the Seabin project aims to remove smaller particles than what they can currently do now. The Seabin technology is more popular than other methods of collecting garbage in our waters because the functions of the Seabin allows it to work at a higher efficiency at collecting garbage compared to other methods.

The Seabin operates efficiently by having the ability to collect micro plastics. The Seabin is able to remove micro plastics from the water thanks to its catch bag being able to collect trash larger than 2mm in size. The Interceptor made by Boyan Slat is a similar product made to collect trash in rivers. It works by moving “the debris onto a conveyor belt, which continuously extracts the debris from the water” (The Ocean Clean Up, 2020). While this method allows trash to be collected at a quicker rate compared to the Seabin, micro plastics are free to seep through the gap in the conveyor belt. Thus while the Interceptor is able to collect more trash, it is unable to collect micro plastics, making the Seabin a better choice since it can do so.

While not technically a feature of the Seabin, the price of the Seabin allows it to be cost-effective. When comparing the prices of the two methods, the Interceptor goes for 777,000 USD (Marchese, 2019), while the Seabin goes for 4000 USD (Hicks, 2018). The huge difference in price would probably make most customers pick the Seabin instead as it is more affordable. The Seabin is also open for purchase to anyone while the Interceptor can only be bought by a few companies. Overall looking at the two different methods, the Seabin would be a better choice due to its feature which allows micro plastics to be collected while the Interceptor does not have as it focuses more on collecting general waste in large amounts instead. Thus, while the rivers would look cleaner thanks to the Interceptor, the micro plastics would remain uncollected and eventually make its way to the ocean where marine life may digest these micro plastics, mistaking it as their food. This would end up affecting us humans as we digest these marine lives.

However, the Seabin is not efficient in some ways due to a few design flaws. One of the most noticeable flaws it has would be the amount of trash the Seabin is able to collect. According to the website “Seabin Project” (2020), the Seabin roughly captures around 3612kg each day. Comparing this to the information on the website “The Ocean Cleanup” regarding the Interceptor, it is able to extract 50000kg each day. This is a huge difference when comparing the two methods. As the Seabin focuses on collecting micro plastics, it has to be very precise in its collection and thus loses out on gathering speed, reducing the amount of trash it is able to collect. Even so, the Seabin in my regard does not lose out in terms of efficiency to the Interceptor as micro plastics are a danger to our oceans as we can hardly see these micro plastics with our naked eyes.

In conclusion, this particular feature that the Seabin has allows it to efficiently clean out our rivers as it can catch smaller sized debris that other methods do not, reducing the amount of micro plastic pollution we have.

Reference

Hicks R. (2018, Apr 11). The Seabin won’t swallow Asia’s plastic pollution problem-but it’s a start. Retrieved and adapted from

https://www.eco-business.com/news/the-seabin-wont-swallow-asias-plastic-pollution-problembut-its-a-start/

Marchese K. (2019, Oct 30). The Ocean cleanup unveils floating garbage truck that catches plastic in rivers. Retrieved and adapted from

https://www.designboom.com/technology/the-ocean-cleanup-interceptor-river-plastic-pollution-10-30-2019/

Seabin Project. (2019.) Seabin using plastic to fight plastics. Retrieved and adapted from
https://seabinproject.com/seabin-using-plastic-to-fight-plastics/

The Ocean Clean Up. (2019) River. Retrieved and adapted from

https://theoceancleanup.com/

Design Summary and Analysis Draft 2 - Seabin using plastic to fight plastics

The article "Seabin using plastic to fight plastics" (2019) describes the dangers of micro fibers and micro plastic in water bodies and introduces the Seabin technology as a possible method to tackle this problem by elaborating on its functions and discussing future improvements.
Micro plastics and micro fibers are a big issue concerning aquatic life as well as humanity itself. These "organic pollutants", which measure up to 5mm in diameter, are digested by aquatic life, which in turn gets digested by humanity. The Seabin technology functions by trapping water and filtering out the trash. The article states that with the addition of sensors implanted onto the Seabin, observations can be made on the amount of micro plastics and micro fibers lying in open waters. With further improvements done to the Seabin technology, the Seabin aims to remove smaller particles than what they can currently do now.

One of the many reasons why the Seabin technology is more popular than other methods of collecting garbage in our waters is that the functions of the Seabin allow it to work at a higher efficiency at collecting garbage compared to other methods.

One way that the Seabin operates efficiently is the ability to collect micro plastics. The Seabin is able to remove micro plastics from the water thanks to its catch bag being able to collect trash larger than 2mm in size. When compared to another method of collecting trash, the Interceptor made by Boyan Slat, which collects the trash in rivers. The Interceptor works by moving “the debris onto a conveyor belt, which continuously extracts the debris from the water” (The Ocean Clean Up, 2020). While this method allows trash to be collected at a quicker rate compared to the Seabin, micro plastics are free to seep through the conveyor belt, Overall looking at the two methods, the Seabin would be a better choice due to its feature which allows micro plastics to be collected while the Interceptor does not have as it focuses more on collecting general waste in large amounts instead. Thus, while the rivers would look cleaner thanks to the Interceptor, the micro plastics would remain uncollected and eventually make its way to the ocean where marine life may digest these micro plastics, mistaking it as their food. This would end up affecting us humans as we digest these marine lives.

However, the Seabin is not all and mighty, it does come with a few design flaws. One of the most noticeable flaws it has would be the amount of trash the Seabin is able to collect. According to the website “Seabin Project” (2020), the Seabin roughly captures around 3612kg each day. Comparing this to the information on the website “The Ocean Cleanup” regarding the Interceptor, it is able to extract 50000kg each day. This is a huge difference when comparing the two methods. As the Seabin focuses on collecting micro plastics, it has to be very precise in its collection and thus loses out on gathering speed, reducing the amount of trash it is able to collect. Even so, the Seabin in my regard does not lose out in terms of efficiency to the Interceptor as micro plastics are a danger to our oceans as we can hardly see these micro plastics with our naked eyes.

In conclusion, this particular feature that the Seabin has allows it to efficiently clean out our rivers as it can catch smaller sized debris that other methods do not, reducing the amount of marine pollution we have.

Reference

Seabin Project. (2019.) Seabin using plastic to fight plastics. Retrieved and adapted from
https://seabinproject.com/seabin-using-plastic-to-fight-plastics/

The Ocean Clean Up. (2019) River. Retrieved and adapted from

https://theoceancleanup.com/

Design Summary and Analysis Draft 1 - Seabin using plastic to fight plastics

The article "Seabin using plastic to fight plastics" (2019) describes the dangers of micro fibers and micro plastic in water bodies and introduces the Seabin technology as a possible method to tackle this problem by elaborating on its functions and discussing future improvements.

Micro plastics and micro fibers are a big issue concerning aquatic life as well as humanity itself. These "organic pollutants", which measure up to 5mm in diameter, are digested by aquatic life, which in turn gets digested by humanity. The Seabin technology functions by trapping water and filtering out the trash. The article states that with the addition of sensors implanted onto the Seabin, observations can be made on the amount of mirco plastics and micro fibers lying in open waters. With further improvements done to the Seabin Project, such trash in our open waters will be reduced drastically.

One of the many reasons why the Seabin technology is more popular than other methods of collecting garbage in the seas is that the functions of the Seabin allow it to work at a higher efficiency than other methods of cleaning our waters.

One such function of the Seabin is the feature for collecting micro plastics. The Seabin is able to remove micro plastics from water sources thanks to its catch bag being able to collect trash larger than 2mm in size. When compared to another method of collecting trash, the Interceptor made by Boyan Slat, which collects the trash in rivers, the Seabin is would be a better choice due to this feature which the Interceptor does not have as it focuses more on collecting general waste in large amounts instead. Thus, while the rivers would look cleaner thanks to the Interceptor, micro plastics would still be able to make its way to the ocean where marine life may digest these micro plastics, mistaking it as their food. This would end up affecting us humans as we digest these marine lives.

Another feature that the Seabin has compared to others is the sensors attached to its body. With these sensors installed, the Seabin can act as a “scientific monitoring tool” that gathers information on the amount of micro plastic in our waters. With this technology, the Seabin is able to keep track of this information while at the same time collecting trash from our waters. One other method that does much information collection is the manta trawl method. The manta trawl is a net system used to take in information regarding the ocean skin. The information taken in is the number of plastic pieces in the ocean along with the plankton species. However, all the manta trawl does is gather information and not the trash itself. This is where the Seabin would excel in since it is able to do both the collection of information and trash.

However, the Seabin is not all and mighty, it does come with a few design flaws. One of the most noticeable flaws it has would be the amount of trash the Seabin is able to collect. According to their homepage, the Seabin roughly captures around 3612.8kg each day. Comparing this to the Interceptor made by Boyan Slat, it is able to extract 50000kg each day. This is a huge difference when comparing the two methods. As the Seabin focuses on collecting micro plastics, it has to be very precise in its collection and thus loses out on gathering speed, reducing the amount of trash it is able to collect. Even so, the Seabin in my regard does not lose out to the Interceptor as micro plastics are a danger to our oceans as we can hardly see these with our naked eyes. One day when the Interceptor finally cleans up the ocean, what about the micro plastics it was unable to collect and everyone thinks the ocean is clean as the micro plastics cannot be seen? This is why even though the Seabin has its flaws, it is still a much needed method of clearing out the trash in our waters.

In conclusion, the Seabin is not the all mighty solution to cleaning up our waters but it will surely and eventually do so with more improvements to be made on the project.

Reference
Seabin Project. (2019.) Seabin using plastic to fight plastics. Retrieved and adapted fromhttps://seabinproject.com/seabin-using-plastic-to-fight-plastics/

The Ocean Clean Up. (2019) River. Retrieved and adapted from

https://theoceancleanup.com/
Manta Trawl (2019)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manta_trawl