Students Raise Funds For Purchase Of Seabin

June 26, 2018

A group of Somersfield Academy M3 students today presented cheques to the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club [RBYC] and Greenrock to fund the purchase and monitoring of a V5 Hybrid Seabin to be installed at RBYC later this summer.

Kieran Kimberley, Thibaut Stefani, and Liam Greenlaw undertook to raise funds for the purchase of Bermuda’s third Seabin for a school project.

They set up a crowdfunding page on Indiegogo, solicited corporate donations from Bacardi Limited, Aspen Insurance, Ascot Group, Armour Group and Enstar Group and held a movie night for younger students raising a total of $5,525 which will cover the cost of the Seabin [approximately $4,000] and a donation to Greenrock to help fund an educational programme that involves youth in the collection and cataloguing of debris collected by Bermuda’s Seabins.

Davida Morris and Jonathan Starling from Greenrock, Somersfield Academy M3 students Liam Greenlaw, Thibaut Stefani, and Kieran Kimberley, and RBYC Rear Commodore Craig Davis

Somersfield Academy Bermuda June 2018

The Seabin is a floating rubbish bin designed to be placed at marinas, docks, yacht clubs and commercial ports as a part solution to the current global littering problem. Water is syphoned in from the surface and passes through the natural fibre catch bag inside the Seabin. The water is pumped back into the marina leaving litter and debris trapped in the catch bag to be disposed of properly.

Bermuda’s first Seabin—a pre-production unit–was installed at the Princess Marina at Hamilton Princess & Beach Club during the America’s Cup under the sponsorship of local bank, Butterfield, a Global Pilot Partner of the Seabin Project.

Butterfield installed a second Seabin at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club in October 2017. For the installation at RBYC, Butterfield will cover the costs of air freight from the Seabin manufacturing facility in France.

Kieran Kimberley, said, “Thibaut, Liam and myself are really pleased to have successfully raised enough funds to allow the purchase of a Seabin for RBYC along with making a donation to Greenrock in support of their educational programmes.

“This has been a wonderful learning experience for the three of us and we could not be prouder in having achieved what we set out to do and extremely grateful for all of those companies and individuals who donated to us. We would like to thank RBYC, Greenrock, Butterfield and our school advisors in providing us support, encouragement and guidance along the way.”

Craig Davis, RBYC Rear Commodore said, “We’ve been following the progress of the Seabin Project for some time, and have been impressed with the technology.

“The RBYC docks are a perfect location for a Seabin, where it will remove plastic pollution from the water, helping keep the harbour clean, and where it will be a highly visible feature of the marina and a conversation starter among members and sailing students about the problem of ocean pollution.

“I want to thank Kieran, Thibaut and Liam for all their hard work in raising funds for the purchase of the Seabin and for their concern about our natural environment. They are a fine example for others.

“We look forward to receiving and installing the Seabin later this summer.”

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Category: All, Environment, News

Comments (3)

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  1. Izzypop says:

    The problem isn’t so Much on the top it’s what’s laying on the bottoms

    • Beam me up Sparky says:

      Well what’s on the bottom starts on the top and a lot of rubbish floats on the top for some considerable time !

    • sage says:

      How much trash do they remove in a year? $4000+ seems pretty steep for a bucket, screen and pump, are these solar powered? Four grand could pay 4 people a G per week to collect floating and sunken trash or to sieve micro plastics from beach tide-lines. We need to completely ban cigarettes for a start, they have no beneficial use at all and kill and sicken people and those nasty butts make up the largest numbers in local trash analysis.