A unique floating rubbish bin, which effectively acts as a vacuum cleaner for the ocean, is being put to good use in waters off Western Australia for the first time.

Perth surfers Andrew Turton and Pete Ceglinski garnered international attention in 2015 for their Seabin prototype, which was created after they became frustrated at the amount of rubbish floating in the ocean.

A successful crowd-funding campaign allowed the device to be produced commercially and the City of Cockburn, in Perth's southern suburbs, has become the first WA council to buy one.

The city's waste education officer, Nicki Ledger, said the Seabin at the Port Coogee boat marina had captured more than a dozen types of plastics in just over a week.

Items commonly found in the marina by the Seabin. ( ABC Radio Perth: Gian De Poloni )

"We're catching a lot of little plastics, lots of polystyrene beads, cigarette butts," Ms Ledger said.

"We're getting those out of the water so they can't do any harm to our local wildlife."

The device is about the same size as a standard rubbish bin and is able to trap 20 kilograms of rubbish at a time.

"We realise the Seabin is not going to be the answer to all our marine debris problems, but it is a great local solution for this area," Ms Ledger said.

Samantha Standish and Nicki Ledger empty the Seabin every day. ( ABC Radio Perth: Gian De Poloni )

She said despite its mechanical movements, the device was safe for marine life.

"Because it's bobbing up and down and there is a motor and a little bit of sound associated with it, we see that when schools of bait fish go towards it, they get quite close and then they'll move off and seem to be staying away from it, thankfully."

Scrubbing the sea

Port Coogee marina manager Samantha Standish said the area was frequently littered with debris from nearby fishing and industrial operations.

"It's quite harmful to the marine life here," she said.

"We have such a healthy marina — we have bait fish, seahorses, green sea turtles, we get seals and dolphins coming in as well — so it's just imperative that we keep a healthy environment for these animals so they keep coming in to visit."

Three kilograms of debris was pulled from the sea in 24 hours, with most being organic matter. ( ABC Radio Perth: Gian De Poloni )

The Seabin is emptied daily and the rubbish is analysed and recorded to identify the types of debris washing into the marina.

"We basically empty the contents out and sort all of the organic waste apart from the plastics," Ms Standish said.

"We have recording sheets that take into consideration the weather, the wind conditions and the temperature."

A sample of the different types of plastics retrieved at Port Coogee. ( ABC Radio Perth: Gian De Poloni )

Plastic the biggest concern

The device recently collected three kilograms of rubbish in just 24 hours.

"It's the worst treasure hunt ever," Ms Standish joked.

"Today we picked up lots of organic leaf waste, a cable tie, two cigarette butts, the top of a fruit juice container, nearly a dozen poly balls, two small plastic wrappers, a dozen bits of micro-plastic, fishing line and plastic curls.

"We're actually just keeping it all in a jar for now and we're going to see what we collect over a month.

The Seabin at Port Coogee marina is the first to be installed in WA. ( ABC Radio Perth: Gian De Poloni )

"I dare say quite a few of the bait fish would have ingested lots of those bits of micro-plastics, as well as the birds we get around the marina and possibly the crabs too.

"These fish are going into the food chain and obviously we'd eat them down the track, so it's fantastic that we can capture them in the Seabin."

The council, meanwhile, said a local artist had expressed interest in creating artwork with the debris collected.