Page 3 - Packaging News Magazine July-Aug 2020

July-August 2020 | www.packagingnews.com.au
COMMENT | PUBLISHER 3
Stepping up to clean up
IN my line of work I get to meet some really inspiring people with pleasing regularity, and this month proved no different. On a clear, crisp morning in early July, I found myself at Jones Bay Wharf in Sydney Harbour, to meet with Pete Ceglinksi, co-founder and CEO of Australian clean-tech start-up Seabin Project.
The occasion was to mark Seabin Project’s next big step towards elimi- nating plastic in our waterways, with the launch of a self-funded 12-month City Pilot in Sydney Harbour.
As Pete explained to me, Seabin’s City Pilot aims to create employment in the environmental sector post Covid-19, and to ultimately provide litter reduction and prevention by removing between 28 tonnes and 56 tonnes per year of marine litter, including microplastics, oil, fuel, and plastic fibres in Sydney Harbour.
That seemed like a lot, but then I was shown the haul collected in the wharf over the previous two days, and treated to a demonstration of the Seabin in action, in which a few hours’ worth of filtering yielded an alarming array of plastic waste. It’s not easy on the eye, and glaringly obvious why Pete and his team are so fired up they are prepared to
self-fund the project. But what hap- pens when the funds run out? And whose responsibility should this be?
Pete says he hopes the data accu- mulated after the first three months on the volume of water filtered and, importantly, the debris collected, will help build a credible case for why the City of Sydney, and also local govern- ment departments, should invest tax- payer’s money in scaling up Seabin in NSW waterways.
And they’re not thinking small. Seabin then plans to replicate the ser- vices program nationwide and ulti- mately, worldwide.
Pete acknowledges that self fund- ing such a large project as this Sydney City Pilot is a calculated risk. He is confident they can pull this off, but knows that they can’t do it without support from the city, community and all the key stakeholders.
He makes the point that the fastest way to a solution is collaboration. I couldn’t agree more. This is every- body’s problem, and that includes brand owners who don’t want to see their branded plastic packaging pol- luting our waterways.
But let’s take it back a step and ask, how do we stop this waste getting here in the first place?
Although the Seabin is designed to ‘clean up’, this is not enough. To turn off the tap, Pete told me, the City Pilot has an equal focus on litter reduction and prevention. Seabin’s Pollution Index data program will monitor the waste collection with the intention of filling key knowledge gaps needed for informed decision making.
During the height of the Covid-19 crisis, as the stock markets tumbled, Seabin raised an impressive $1.7 mil- lion from over 1500 community investors, proving that environmen- tal concerns and the need for solu- tions are long term.
I left the event thinking three things: we need more people like Pete, we need to support people like Pete, and we need to realise this is everybody’s problem. Stepping up can start with the smallest of acts. It could make a world of difference. ■
Lindy Hughson – Managing Editor
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This is everybody’s problem, and that includes brand owners who don’t want to see their branded plastic packaging polluting
our waterways.”