Brain wave: the surfers who made a trashcan for the ocean

Despite regular coastal cleanups around the world, the problem of ocean garbage continues. Now, two Australians say they've found the solution - the Seabin

By now, reports that our oceans are turning into swirling garbage dumps should come as no surprise. There are some 5.25tn pieces of floating plastic debris in the oceans right now, and it's estimated that some 8m metric tons of plastic waste enter global waters every year. A researcher recently likened it to lining up five grocery bags of trash on every foot of coastline around the world. The US is adjacent to the largest of the five ocean "garbage patches" - it's estimated the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which extends from the coast of North America to a few hundred miles off the coast of Japan, contains some 480,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer.

Now, two surfers from Australia say they may have the solution. Peter Ceglinski and Andrew Turton have invented a device they call the Seabin, a kind of submersible garbage can that siphons and captures floating debris.