WhiteWater joins Vancouver Plastic Cleanup
We’re excited to announce that the Vancouver Plastic Cleanup has added a new lead sponsor, WhiteWater, to its coalition of amazing partners, helping to clean up and protect our waterways.
WhiteWater is the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of water attractions, creating places where fun can thrive and families make joyful lasting memories. This is achieved by standing alongside its customers from concept to completion of award-winning attractions, from slides to water rides and everything in between. They’re dedicated to making products that operators can count on, because they understand the importance of reliability and efficiency on the bottom line—and on the environment.
Read more about WhiteWater’s journey to sustainability here.
WhiteWater Senior Project Manager, Greg Zembik, weighing a Seabin.
“It was fascinating to physically inspect and categorize the materials floating in our waters…both natural, and unnatural. It is clear that we have a lot of work to do to keep our waters swimmable, drinkable and fishable, but the passion and enthusiasm of the Swim Drink Fish team show that it is achievable, and that we can have fun doing it!”
- Greg Zembik, WhiteWater Senior Project Manager
As a the new lead sponsor of Seabins, WhiteWater joins a coalition which includes, partners Fraser Riverkeeper, Smart Marine, Dentist on Demand, Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup, Pollution Probe, Skookum Yacht Services, CMHC - Granville Island, Sea Village Marina, Maritime Market Marina Ltd., Surfrider Foundation Vancouver Chapter, Poralu Marine, Water Products & Solutions, and the U of T Trash Team.
“Fraser Riverkeeper, with crucial support from partners like WhiteWater, are leading the way across Canada as a community based water quality hub. They are collecting and sharing environmental data with the public to improve and protect our waters. The Seabins are a great example of innovation, action and collaboration resulting in meaningful impacts on swimmable drinkable fishable water.”
- Mark Mattson, President Swim Drink Fish Canada
Each year, tens of thousands of pieces of plastic litter are collected by community scientists. In 2017, 25,000 microplastics were counted in False Creek in a single reading. An estimated 30 billion microplastics are released into Vancouver's waters each year by water treatment plants, polluting their surrounding watersheds.
Last June, three Seabins were installed at marinas across Granville Island, including Granville Island Public Dock, Sea Village Marina, and Maritime Market Marina Ltd. These sites were selected due to the high concentration of floatable debris in those areas.
The Seabin, affectionately known as Seabinscuit, located at Maritime Market Marina Ltd.
Seabins use an electric pump that constantly skims and filters the surface of the water. The submersible water pump is capable of displacing 25,000 litres per hour. Water is sucked in from the surface and passes through a catch bag inside the Seabin. Seabins collect floating debris such as macroplastics, microplastics as small as 2mm, microfibers, hydrocarbons, and contaminated organic waste like seaweed.
The network of Swim Drink Fish community scientists capture data and measure debris collected by mass and characterize the litter by product type and then it’s properly disposed of by local partners. The data will be uploaded to the Vancouver Plastic Cleanup and Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup websites. Combined, this data will allow the team to understand the effectiveness in removing plastic litter and make predictions about the sources of litter entering our waterways.