Vancouver Water Monitoring

We're Taking Action To Clean Up The
Waterways of Vancouver!

Swim Drink Fish is spearheading the Vancouver Plastic Cleanup by installing, maintaining, and overseeing multiple Seabins in Vancouver over three years to engage in a waste characterization, plastic education, and advocacy project.

Summer of 2021, 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 significant amount of floatable debris concentrated in those areas. By collecting floatable litter, these Seabins are cleaning up False Creek.

Swim Drink Fish is pleased to bring the Vancouver Plastic Cleanup to BC and support a swimmable Vancouver!

What is a Seabin?

A Seabin is an innovative technology that skims the surface of the water using an electric pump that filters water 24/7. Trash Skimmers collect floating debris such as macroplastics, microplastics as small as 2mm, microfibers, hydrocarbons, and contaminated organic waste like seaweed. Essentially, a Seabin is a floating garbage bin that captures plastic pollution before it travels further into the sea and enters the food chain.

How Does a Seabin Work?

The Seabin is installed with metal brackets on the side of the marina’s dock. Water is sucked in from the surface and passes through a catch bag inside the Seabin, with a submersible water pump capable of displacing 25.000 liters per hour, plugged directly into either a 110V or 220V outlet. The water is then pumped back into the marina leaving litter and debris trapped in the catch bag. The Seabin can catch an estimated 3.9 Kgs of floating debris per day or 1.4 tons per year (depending on weather and debris volumes).

The Vancouver Plastic Cleanup is a coalition spearheaded by Swim Drink Fish and builds on the legacy of the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup, which was initiated by Pollution Probe and the binational Council of the Great Lakes Region.

Vancouver Plastic Cleanup Coalition members include WhiteWater, Peter Wall Charitable Foundation, Dentist on Demand, Smart Marine Co., Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup, Pollution Probe, Skookum Yacht Services, CMHC - Granville Island, Sea Village Marina, Maritime Market Marina Ltd., Poralu Marine, Water Products & Solutions, Surfrider Vancouver, and the U of T Trash Team. Learn more about the partners here.

The litter collected will be analyzed and valuable plastics will be recovered to be reused in the recycling system. During the Seabin Project, we’ll be working with local communities and businesses to keep plastics out of our environment and waterways, thereby protecting Vancouver’s waters—now and for future generations. Find out about the plastic problem here.

Marinas around Granville Island are joining the project and installing cleanup technology to help get plastic out of the waterways.

• Seabins are floating trash skimmers that collect floating debris such as macroplastics, microplastics as small as 2mm, microfibers, hydrocarbons, and contaminated organic waste like seaweed.

• The Seabin’s submersible water pump is capable of displacing 25,000 liters per hour.

• The Seabin can catch an estimated 3.9 kgs of floating debris per day or 1.4 tons per year (depending on weather and debris volumes).

• In June, 2021, three Seabins were installed at marinas across Granville Island, including Granville Island Public Dock, Sea Village Marina, and Maritime Market Marina Ltd.

• The Vancouver Plastic Cleanup is a coalition spearheaded by Swim Drink Fish. It was inspired by the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup, co-founded by Pollution Probe and the Council of Great Lakes Region.

• The catch bags are emptied every day and the waste is sorted into five waste streams each week. Once a month, Swim Drink Fish employees and community science volunteers sort through the waste and conduct an in-depth waste characterization.

• An estimated 30 billion plastic particles are released into Vancouver’s waterways each year.

• 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.

• When plastic pollutants make their way into aquatic food webs, they can harm local wildlife.

• Seabins and trash capture devices are part of a three pronged approach to prevent plastics from impacting waters: Plastic Waste Reduction, Increase Waste Management, and Plastic Pollution Cleanup.

Every month, you can sign up to help us characterize the waste collected by the Seabins. Sign up here to learn more about what you can do to help.

Thank you to all of our amazing coalition partners, including:

Swim Drink Fish and Fraser Riverkeeper thank WhiteWater for supporting a swimmable Vancouver.