We have covered the topic of reusing plastic bottles and recycled plastic quite extensively over the past few years. Plastic bottles, plastic bags, food packaging, all these contribute greatly to the overall state of devastation of the environment, where these items often end up and remain there for millions of years.
The problem of plastic pollution has accelerated over the past decade to an extend to which new eco-systems are formed. Particularly worrying is ocean plastic pollution, which has now gone way beyond saving. Marine animals and organisms are now feeding on broken down plastic bottles, while endangered species are making their nests on beaches made of plastics and not sand.
A novel method proposed by Method, an emerging firm in the field of innovative designs from recycled plastic, in collaboration with Envision Plastics, one of the leading plastic recyclers, converts ocean plastic debris into a brand new recycled plastic material. This material is truly unique and very high quality, something that might come as a surprise to all those, who do not believe that anything can be made out of 100% ocean trash that has floated for decades.
The guys believe that this low quality floating plastic material can be collected by volunteers from easily accessible beaches. A big campaign is already scheduled for September 17th, which is also the International Coastal Cleanup Day, when a few organizations will join forces to acquire plastics from the beach. Alternatively, the material could be intercepted before specialized companies that clean up the washed up plastics reach landfills.
To ensure they have all the plastics they need, they also intend to involve volunteer organizations to help them collect the trash. Once this is done, they will have to find retail partners, but I think it will not be very hard- after all, their slogan is “buy one bottle, take 15 grams of plastic out of the ocean“.
Everyone behind the invention is far away from thinking they can clean up the whole ocean- scientists, who have dedicated their lives on the problem do not yet have a real solution. Well, a teenager might have it, but we have not seen his idea put into practice just yet. So in the mean time, the guys from the Method, aim to raise awareness about the problem, and show that we have plenty of plastics already on the planet- we do not need to make new.
Image (c) Method
Hi, the Belgium company you speak of is Ecover, and they brought Method in 2012. I think you might be talking about two companies, joined together, doing the same project? Am I right, am I wrong?!