Media Release
Australian start-up Seabin Project is partnering with Coca-Cola Australia to tackle marine pollution in Sydney Harbour, through its world-first Smarter Cities – Cleaner Oceans Sydney Pilot.
Established in 2016 by Australian entrepreneur, Pete Ceglinski, Seabin Project tackles marine litter in public waterways, marinas, and ports with its “rubbish skimmer” technology and is now a global initiative operating in more than 53 countries.
The Smarter Cities – Cleaner Ocean pilot on Sydney Harbour will remove debris in areas from Jones Bay Wharf, Pyrmont through to Rose Bay, with an emphasis on collecting data to better understand the health of our waterways and assist with future marine litter reduction programs.
“To fast track solutions, we have always used a co existent approach. The decision to partner with Coca- Cola was not one made lightly, but the team and I are excited and confident we have made the right decision, as we need buy in from all levels. From government, to industry, corporate, private business and regular people. We all have a role to play in solving the plastic pollution problem,” said Seabin Project Co-Founder and CEO Pete Ceglinski.
“We look forward to working with the Coca-Cola team to help scale the program, fast track solutions and raise awareness of the issue of ocean pollution.”
One of the key goals of the partnership between Coca-Cola Australia and Seabin Project is to collect data that helps measure where the waste in our waterways is coming from and how successful the reduction efforts are.
“Data is critical – the Seabin technology itself is just one element of our work. We need better education and prevention strategies in place to ensure garbage doesn’t end up in the ocean in the first place. As we process the data we collect, we can forecast behaviours,” said Pete.
The Coca-Cola Company is working towards their global World Without Waste vision, aiming to collect and recycle a bottle or can for each one it sells by 2030. To help drive a circular economy for plastics, Coca-Cola is using less virgin plastic and more recycled content, with packaging designed so it has the best chance of being recycled and supporting collection and recycling infrastructure and programs.
“We’re excited to support Australian innovation through this Pilot. Pete and his team are passionate and committed to tackling marine pollution head-on with a simple model that’s data driven and effective,” said Anna Dear, Community and Partnerships Senior Manager, Coca-Cola ASEAN and South Pacific.
“Our partnerships are critical to achieving our global ‘World Without Waste’ goals to keep plastic packaging out of our oceans and landfill. We look forward to working closely with the team and using our scale and resources to further support its rollout,” said Anna.
Through the partnership, an estimated 4.3 billion litres of water will be filtered from Sydney’s iconic harbour, removing oils, fuels, microplastics and microfibres. An expected 28 tonnes of marine litter will be cleaned from Sydney harbour by the end of July 2022 as a result.
