Plastic pollution has been a growing problem for decades, but has recently captured global attention to the extent that governments around the world, and brands, both big and small, want to be part of the solution.  Plastic in the ocean has been the main vector which has motivated communities into action, but we all know that most of the plastic comes from land and the communities we live in. 

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Is plastic sustainability possible?  In many ways, all of the benefits of plastic (light weight and very long lasting), are exactly its downfalls once it gets into the environment.  It is overly "sustainable" when lost to nature, and that's a problem.  But, it can be sustainable if we fix the way that we socially collect, sort and manage our materials via companies, cities or our homes.  

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Ocean Recovery Alliance and its team have worked with a wide variety of global stakeholders for over 10 years, including United Nations Environment (UNEP), the World Bank, the Clinton Global Initiative, and many companies from around the world as part of our programs, engagement, solutions and awareness building for all types of stakeholders, whether schools, universities, companies and their packaging or waste reduction, or municipal governments and their plastic footprints. 

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We realize that a lot of plastic is embedded in the way our economies work, and provides solutions for light-weighting and carbon reduction via transportation, but there is also a lot of unnecessary plastic in the form of packaging and single use items which are not necessary for the actual product's use.  With this in mind, we have a variety of programs and skillsets which help to manage these plastic footprints, so even if it needs to be used, it's impact as plastic waste is highly minimized.   

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One example is our Plastic Disclosure Project (PDP) which is much like that of carbon or water reporting.  This was the first plastic footprinting methodology to be launched globally, and was done so in 2010, well ahead of what the market was ready to work with.  With the interest today in creating circular economies, this is not possible unless the baseline metrics of plastic use, recovery, recycled content and 2nd-life management are understood.  You can't manage, or create circularity, if you don't know details of what you have. 

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If you are a stakeholder wishing to become involved with your community of users, employees or peers, whether you are a company, municipality, multilateral institution, foundation, NGO or other organization, we would be happy to help engage you in this journey in reducing plastic in our ocean (and all of our land, waters and overall environment). 

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Let us know, as we can help with reducing your waste footprints, telling your story, branding, improving recycling rates, instituting bring-back programs, changing your packaging, or creating impactful community and employee engagement programs that educate and make a difference in your area of focus. 

 

Please contact us via Kai at: kai@oceanrecov.org if interested to know more.