EVENT | OCEAN PLASTICS


Exploring ocean plastic solutions


Many organisations are tackling the problem of plastic pollution in the world’s waterways, says AMI Conferences


Main image: Plastics waste is found in many water- ways around the world


In recent years ocean plastic pollution has climbed the list of pressing environmental issues. The fact it can be found in rivers, lakes, seas and oceans is often used as evidence that society should step away from plastic consumption altogether. How- ever, this view fails to acknowledge how plastic is deployed in growing social equity or reduction of CO2 emissions. Now a growing number of compa- nies are returning the valuable resource found in the environment back into the material cycle. The emerging ocean plastic sector, centred


around collection, processing and recycling, has grown out of an amalgamation of governmental and NGO initiatives, not-for-profit organisations, and businesses capitalising on the recyclable material collected through the informal waste sector. Major plastic manufacturers and end-users have collaborated on launching their ocean plastic products. Examples include: SABIC’s Trucircle materials and Microsoft’s Ocean Plastic Mouse; Klöckner Pentaplast ShoreCycle devel- oped for bank and credit card applications; HP


12 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | November/December 2021


and First Mile across multiple applications. Most ocean plastic available on the market is


currently sourced from countries with underdevel- oped waste management infrastructure. The infrastructure gap is filled by individual waste pickers and small family businesses, which collect the material from the environment and sell it to aggregators. The manually collected and sorted material is often higher purity than that found in automated MRFs, and some suppliers (eg Prevented Ocean Plastic) offer ocean-bound food grade PET. From an aggregator, the material enters the


recycling and manufacturing stream much like any other recycled plastic. To differentiate it from other recycled material, ocean plastic suppliers put emphasis on traceability. This is achieved through diligent records and various programmes. For example, Lucro, a recycler based in India, has developed a proprietary online platform for tracking its film recycling. Meanwhile, Zero Plastic Oceans has developed an open-source Ocean Bound Plastic mark. The certification is carried out


www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com


IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK


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