A new seabin, the first of a fleet of six funded by Sellafield Ltd’s Social Impact Multiplied programme, has been installed in Whitehaven Marina.
The pollution fighting scheme was the brainchild of the staff and youngsters from the Whitehaven Harbour Youth Project.
They installed the first seabin into the harbour in 2019 and applied to Sellafield Ltd to fund a further six.
The remaining seabins will be installed at a rate of one per month.
Once installed, the marina will sit behind only Sydney Harbour and Dubai in terms of investment in tackling marina pollution around the world.
Stephen Walter from the youth project said: “These seabins will remove large and micro plastics from the water, collecting 2kg of waste before it needs to be emptied. At the moment we are emptying it 2 or 3 times a day, which gives you an idea of the scale of the problem we are tackling.
“The waste ends up in the marina by washing in from the culverts that run under the town, and also from the side of the marina itself.
“Although these bins will a fantastic asset in terms of removing that waste, everyone can help by making sure that wherever you are, your rubbish is put in the bin.”
Sellafield Ltd’s head of community and development, Gary McKeating said: “This project is a brilliant example of social impact multiplied because it involved lots of stakeholders working together, us, the youth project, the marina management company, and the harbour commissioners to name a few.
“To know that the origin of the idea came from the young people in our community is extra special and shows just how important environmental protection is to the next generation and hopefully everyone.”
