Communities Drowning In Plastic Waste
Where does the plastic in our oceans come from, and how can we stop the ocean plastic crisis?
What many of us don't realize is that the plastic in our oceans is not usually dropped directly into the sea. Research shows that 80% of it comes via land and 82% of that comes from Asia, in particular, South East Asia, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. It's a damning statistic, but without proper waste management infrastructure or any disincentives, it won't improve.
These are countries with a large proportion of ocean-facing shoreline, and population density along that shoreline largely determines how much trash winds up in the ocean: more people, more trash.
The irony is that the communities responsible for most of the plastic problem are also those whose livelihoods are most at risk from it. The ocean provides food, work, transport, and tourism, yet these many communities are almost literally drowning in plastic.
Imagine if you had no rubbish collection service, what would you do with your trash? Perhaps you'd burn it or maybe you'd create a rubbish dump somewhere in the neighborhood, but chances are it wouldn't be well-managed and the trash would escape. Maybe, you'd drop it in the ditch, flowing into the river or collecting on the beach itself.
What Would You Do With Your Trash?
With no other options available, you can see how plastic has built up in these communities. It’s termed ‘Ocean Bound Plastic’ coined by Jenna Jambeck, an environmental engineer at the University of Georgia. Jambeck, together with a team of scientists at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in California, found that plastic found within a 50km radius of the coast had an extremely high likelihood of ending up in the ocean.
As more and more plastic pollution builds up in these regions, more and more of it enters our oceans. The solution is to create the incentives people need to collect it, and the way to do that is by placing a value on it.
Better Packaging Co., a provider of sustainable packaging, has managed to do exactly that. They have developed a range of courier mailers and poly bags made from 100% recycled Ocean Bound Plastic pollution—a world-first innovation they call POLLAST!C™.
Better Packaging Co.
This ground-breaking company works with those in affected communities in South East Asia, providing compensation to collect said pollution, and in doing so help break the cycle of poverty and pollution.
Key Takeaways
- The company's mission is to design packaging that has no negative impact and instead leaves the world in a better state, both environmentally and socially.
- POLLAST!C™ certainly does that; in fact, its production makes a positive impact towards an incredible 14 of the United Nation's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- BPCo. provides their packaging to some of the largest brands in the world and, with that scope and scale, are able to make a significant impact and a dent in the global plastics crisis.
Where does the plastic in our oceans come from, and how can we stop the ocean plastic crisis?
What many of us don't realize is that the plastic in our oceans is not usually dropped directly into the sea. Research shows that 80% of it comes via land and 82% of that comes from Asia, in particular, South East Asia, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. It's a damning statistic, but without proper waste management infrastructure or any disincentives, it won't improve.
These are countries with a large proportion of ocean-facing shoreline, and population density along that shoreline largely determines how much trash winds up in the ocean: more people, more trash.
The irony is that the communities responsible for most of the plastic problem are also those whose livelihoods are most at risk from it. The ocean provides food, work, transport, and tourism, yet these many communities are almost literally drowning in plastic.
Imagine if you had no rubbish collection service, what would you do with your trash? Perhaps you'd burn it or maybe you'd create a rubbish dump somewhere in the neighborhood, but chances are it wouldn't be well-managed and the trash would escape. Maybe, you'd drop it in the ditch, flowing into the river or collecting on the beach itself.
What Would You Do With Your Trash?
With no other options available, you can see how plastic has built up in these communities. It’s termed ‘Ocean Bound Plastic’ coined by Jenna Jambeck, an environmental engineer at the University of Georgia. Jambeck, together with a team of scientists at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in California, found that plastic found within a 50km radius of the coast had an extremely high likelihood of ending up in the ocean.
As more and more plastic pollution builds up in these regions, more and more of it enters our oceans. The solution is to create the incentives people need to collect it, and the way to do that is by placing a value on it.
Better Packaging Co., a provider of sustainable packaging, has managed to do exactly that. They have developed a range of courier mailers and poly bags made from 100% recycled Ocean Bound Plastic pollution—a world-first innovation they call POLLAST!C™.
Better Packaging Co.
This ground-breaking company works with those in affected communities in South East Asia, providing compensation to collect said pollution, and in doing so help break the cycle of poverty and pollution.
Key Takeaways
- The company's mission is to design packaging that has no negative impact and instead leaves the world in a better state, both environmentally and socially.
- POLLAST!C™ certainly does that; in fact, its production makes a positive impact towards an incredible 14 of the United Nation's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- BPCo. provides their packaging to some of the largest brands in the world and, with that scope and scale, are able to make a significant impact and a dent in the global plastics crisis.
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