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/