With the Expressions of Interest set to close on 12th February, 2020, hundreds of members of the public from more than 20 different countries have already registered their interest, with over AUD $1 million investment indicated so far.
A Seabin is a little cleanup basket that gets dropped into marinas and sucks in water and rubbish, which gets caught in a catch bag filter. The water is then pumped back into the marina, leaving the rubbish behind to be disposed of each day.
The average the Seabin catches around 1.5 kg of rubbish per day, which equates to a massive half a ton a year. Seabin ia a kind of personal ocean trash can. But because rubbish tends to collect in marinas, you get to clean up everyone else's trash as well.I admit that when I first saw it, I wondered why you'd bother. One little trash can in one big ocean. But this little bin is a powerhouse, easy to deploy and at around $5,000 is affordable to Marina owners.
Seabin Project raised $378,000 in late 2015 on Indiegogo and are hoping to raise AUD $3 million through public investment on Birchal to scale production and operations, maximising the market opportunity available. This public ‘Series A’ round of funding will assist with reshoring manufacturing to Australia, product innovation and updates, scaling up of business operations, creating a new subscription network, and increasing global coverage from 52 to 196 countries. Seabin Co-founder, Pete Ceglinski says,
“BY INVESTING IN SEABIN PROJECT, INDIVIDUALS CAN PLAY A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN PREVENTING MORE PLASTIC FROM ENTERING OUR OCEANS. WE WANT TO BE ABLE TO CONTINUE TO PROVIDE PRACTICAL AND TANGIBLE SOLUTIONS TO REDUCE PLASTICS IN OUR OCEANS AND TO ULTIMATELY HAVE POLLUTION FREE OCEANS FOR OUR FUTURE GENERATIONS."
The EOI is currently open, closing on 12th February. The public offer will open late February and close late March. The Seabin Project You Tube vid also tells more of the story if you want to know more about the project - investor or not.