NORFOLK, Va. — An Australian invention is helping clean the Elizabeth River, collecting more than 1,000 pounds of trash in the water since October 2018.
The three ‘Seabins’ were donated to Nauticus in Norfolk by Chesapeake company Wartsila, valued at $15,000.
You’ll find them floating in the Nauticus marina area, between the cruise ship dock and the museum.
“We get a lot of debris that washes from the main part of the river into the marina,” Susie Hill, Nauticus’s education specialist and special programs manager, said.
Hill tells 13News Now the Seabins have been extremely successful, sifting through seven gallons of water an hour and holding up to 18 pounds of trash each.
“The way that they work is they have a water pump underneath the bottom, and it sucks water and marine debris through the net that’s sitting inside of it,” Hill said.
The bins have to be cleaned out daily by Nauticus staff because they collect so much trash and debris.
Often times, staff get help dumping out the bins from local kids and college students. The volunteers include the museum’s Junior Scientists Club, comprised of local middle schoolers, the ‘Sail Nauticus’ group, students from The Hague School and a Tidewater Community College class.
The nets in the Seabins collect plastics, Styrofoams, micro-plastics, organic waste and even marine life, like small fish, shrimp and crabs. The animals are thrown back into the water.
The bins can even sift out oil from a spill or leakage.
Some of the odder finds over the last year, Hill said, were clothes, a handheld radio, ID badges, construction helmets and a single, apparently very expensive, shoe.
The great success of the bins highlights a bigger problem though.
“That could mean good news, ‘Yay, we cleaned up the river!’ or it could be bad news, ‘Oh there’s lots of marine debris still floating around.’” Hill said.