The first commercial Seabin has begun sucking plastic pollution out of the sea in Portsmouth harbour, on the UK's south coast, from where Stuart McDill reports.
A floating rubbish bin has started doing its bit to clean up the world's oceans. Seabin uses a pump to suck in seawater - capturing plastic and other pollution. This one - the world's first commercially deployed Seabin - belongs to the UK yacht racing team Land Rover BAR. SOUNDBITE (English) AMY MUNRO, SUSTAINABILITY MANAGER LAND ROVER B.A.R., SAYING: "It's got a pump running through it, pulls the plastics and the debris into the bottom and then pumps the water out of the bottom. It's collecting all sorts from tiny bits, plastic nurdles and bits of polystyrene all the way up to bits of broken buckets and plastic bottles as well." Plastic breaks down in the sea into tiny particles small enough to be ingested by fish - harming the food chain and environment. As much as 8 million tonnes of plastic end up in the sea every year - while one Seabin can hoover up just half a tonne. SOUNDBITE (English) AMY MUNRO, SUSTAINABILITY MANAGER LAND ROVER B.A.R., SAYING: "As a sailing team, we really see first hand the impact of ocean plastic and marine debris on the environment. The oceans are where we train everyday and it's something that we are painfully aware of when we learn more about the five gyres where these plastics and debris are accumulating in the middle and we've got ocean sailors within the team who've all seen that first hand as well." Marine experts fear there could be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050. Seabin's makers admit it's no solution to such a problem - but hope it helps highlight the scale of plastic pollution in the world's oceans.