Bin doing our bit for the environment.

A Marina in Southampton is installing “seabins”.  It looks like quite a nifty contribution in helping to clear up the trash that is in our seas.

How much?

At last count there is an estimate 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean. Let me just repeat that, 5.25 TRILLION pieces of plastic in the ocean. For those who do not know what a trillion is then let us tell you. It is a million, millions, or put simply 1,000,000,000,000. Of this an estimated 269,000 tonnes of this plastic floats on the surface. It is also estimated that every square kilometre of ocean has 4 billion plastic microfibres floating in it.

An environmental disaster

So what?

So we know the size of the problem but what does that actually mean to us and the animals and plants that live in, or rely on the oceans and seas? Some of the most affected species are some of the most well known and loved animals on our planet or are relied upon to maintain the equilibrium of the earths most vital resource. From whales, turtles and sea birds right down to bacteria this situation is causing huge damage to the marine wildlife of the world.

It is estimated that in excess of 100 million animals are killed directly as a result of plastics in the sea each year. 34% of leatherback turtles are found to have ingested plastic. A beached whale in Spain was found to have over 20kg of plastic in it’s stomach. The list is endless but what can be done?

The effect of plastic in our oceans.Are seabins the solution?

That’s rubbish! Are seabins the answer?

Well an Australian firm is the first to start making seabins! Yes you did read that correctly. These bins are able to “collect” up to 90,000 plastic bags, 35,700 plastic cups, 16,500 plastic bottles or 166,500 plastic utensils every year. So impressed with these statistics, Ocean Village Marina in Southampton, used National Lottery Heritage Fun money to install a network of seabins across the Southampton area. We all hope this new product can assist in cleaning up the mess.

What else are First Class Sailing doing?

You can read about our environmental efforts here.

Posted by: First Class Sailing