The HSBC Malta Foundation is supporting environmental non-governmental organisation (eNGO) Zibel with a donation of more than €5,000 to purchase and install a Seabin at the Manoel Island Marina. The Seabin will filter sea water and collect waste in a specific location where litter is known to accumulate.
The Seabin that HSBC Malta is sponsoring will be part of the Seabin Malta Project, which was started by Zibel and their partners Strand Marine in 2018. Seabins are generally placed in marinas, attached to piers or floating docks, where water easily flows through them, through which the bay will clean itself as currents circulate the surface debris. The top ten waste items filtered out by a Seabin are: foam/polystyrene residues, cigarettes, foil wrappers and packets, plastic fragments larger and smaller than 1cm, plastic bags and bottles, rope remnants, bottle caps, and paper.
Each Seabin can filter 25,000 litres of seawater per hour, or almost 220 million litres every year, and collect approximately 1.5 kilogrammes of floating debris a day, which equates to the weight of roughly 151 empty one-litre plastic bottles. Furthermore, a Seabin can collect microplastics as small as 2 mm. This unit joins an expanding network of Seabins around the island.
Simon Vaughan Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Bank Malta and Chair of the HSBC Malta Foundation, said: “In addition to cleaning the sea surface of debris and pollutants, a Seabin can collect waste that is otherwise difficult to collect due to its size and which presents a threat to marine life. The sponsorship of a Seabin is very much in line with HSBC Bank Malta’s commitment to facilitating the delivery of impactful solutions that both address environmental challenges and raise awareness on sustainability and the environment.”
Speaking about the Company’s collaboration with Zibel, MIDI CEO Mark Portelli said: “Following our recent sponsorship for the provision of berthing facilities for Zibel’s boat, we are proud to once again be collaborating with this eNGO to supply the right environment and services for the installation of a Seabin at the Manoel Island Marina. As the company which is responsible for the revitalisation of Manoel Island and Tigné Point, MIDI is extremely conscious of its environmental responsibilities and has always been at the forefront of supporting green initiatives.”
Andrew Schembri, Cofounder and Chairman of Zibel, said: “We have grown significantly since we founded Zibel in 2017. While our focus on a cleaner environment and sustainable lifestyle education remained intact, we have moved beyond simple cleanups. Today, we work on many projects, one of which is the Seabin Malta Project, which is able to expand thanks to generous corporate donations such as the one we are receiving from the HSBC Malta Foundation. Since the launch of the project we have strived to work with communities in-order to install as many units as possible.”