Together we can do better
Transforming Plastic Waste Into Empowering Income
Our climate partner helps build ethical recycling ecosystems in coastal communities while simultaneously creating positive economic opportunities for those who helped collect it.
Plastic pollution is one of the greatest threats to our oceans and marine life. The United Nations estimates that every year 8 million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in waterways and if we continue to consume and discard single-use plastics at this rate, by 2050 there could be more plastic in our ocean than fish. Plastic Bank® builds ethical recycling ecosystems in coastal communities while simultaneously creating positive economic opportunities for those who helped collect it.
Plastic Bank Stops the Flow Of Plastic Waste Into Our Oceans
Currently, more than half of plastic produced is designed to be single-use, and less than 9% is recycled. Today, over 5 trillion pieces of plastic litter the ocean. The most famous accumulation of discarded plastic is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area of floating plastic pollution approximately three times the size of France. To fight plastic pollution, society must move away from the linear model of “Take, Make, Dispose”, and instead embrace a circular model that recycles and reuses the same resources indefinitely.
Plastic Bank promotes the circular economy by monetising plastic waste. Their collectors receive a premium for the materials they collect which helps them provide basic family necessities. The collected material is reborn as Social Plastic® which can be easily reintegrated into products and packaging as part of a closed-loop supply chain.
Not only does Plastic Bank prevent ocean-bound plastics from reaching our waterways, but they also reduce the number of new plastics being created by encouraging companies to switch to recycled sources.
Plastic Bank builds ethical recycling ecosystems in coastal communities and reprocesses the materials for reintroduction into the global manufacturing supply chain. The plastic is sorted, weighed and exchanged for digital tokens that can be redeemed for basic necessities such as groceries, cooking fuel, school tuition, and health insurance.
Plastic Bank has helped over 5000 people in Haiti, Brazil, the Philippines, and Indonesia earn a fair, sustainable income by collecting plastic waste.
Plastic Bank is helping the world stop ocean plastic while improving the lives of those who collect it.
Plastic Bank currently operates in Haiti, Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Egypt. To maximise positive impact, Plastic Bank selects its location sites based on three core criteria: high unemployment, high poverty, and high plastic pollution. In doing so, they directly contribute to 14 of the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Blockchain Technology provides transparency and traceability across the entire value chain.
Plastic Bank uses cutting edge blockchain technology developed by IBM to transform plastic waste into digital tokens, which can be safely stored and traded. Plastic Bank’s proprietary platform secures the entire transaction and provides real-time data visualisation across the value chain – allowing for transparency, traceability, and rapid scalability.
Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Plastic Bank is recognised as an innovative, market-based approach to helping the world stop ocean plastic while improving the lives of those who help collect it. They have been endorsed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and received the UN “Momentum for Change” Climate Solutions Award.
Every order of Poopbagz you place helps empower coastal communities through fair work and wages by restoring mangrove ecosystems, crucial to employment, livelihood and nutrition.
What Is Mangrove Restoration?
Mangrove restoration is the process of revitalising and improving mangroves - coastal wetland habitats mainly found in tropical regions with unique trees and plants. Mangroves are crucial ecosystems for a variety of wildlife, stabilising the coastline to prevent the land from erosion and absorbing large quantities of carbon emissions to fight climate change.
The need for mangrove restoration arises due to significant damage and destruction of mangrove areas through urbanisation, aquaculture, and deforestation. Globally, between 20% and 35% of mangrove areas have been lost since 1980. This has resulted in poorer quality of life for coastal populations, lower economic growth and impoverished livelihood. Key aspects of mangrove restoration include replanting mangrove species in areas where they have been depleted or destroyed, restoring local ecosystem dynamics, involving communities in planning and implementation, and implementing protective measures.
Mangrove restoration is essential not only for the preservation of biodiversity and ecological balance but also for the well-being of coastal communities that rely on these ecosystems for their livelihoods. It contributes to the overall health of coastal environments, enhances fisheries, promotes sustainable practices, and mitigates the impact of natural disasters.
Mangrove Restoration In Kenya
The key objective of EarthLung’s Mangrove restoration project in Kenya is to uplift financially disadvantaged coastal communities by revitalising the mangrove forests aiming to ‘break the cycle of poverty’. Through the restoration of the biodiverse estuary, this initiative will not only establish new fishing grounds but also generate supplementary sources of income. Moreover, the rejuvenated forests will serve as a protective barrier against storm surges.
The Process Of Mangrove Restoration
The two main methods of mangrove planting are nurseries and direct planting. Nurseries nurture seedlings until they are ready for permanent planting in the wild, providing better growth rates and higher survival rates. The community in the nursery can produce up to 300 pots daily, collecting propagules and planting them. The nursery process involves filling bags with muddy and clayey soil, germinating seeds, and nursing plants with watering, shading, weeding, pest control, fertilization, and hardening.
The second method is direct planting, where the team directly pick propagules off existing trees and plants them directly. Both methods are challenging and often require an early start and a late finish. Accessing planting sites can be physically demanding, involving trudging through mangrove channels in hot, knee-deep mud, often barefoot due to the swampy terrain. Planting partners navigate through extensive mangrove roots. At the planting site, approximately 5,000 propagules are planted per hectare, roughly one propagule for every two steps, inserted up to one-third of their length. Planting and protection methods are well planned, resulting in a healthy survival rate of saplings of roughly 80%.
The Project Has An Immense Positive Impact On Local Communities, Biodiversity And the Environment
Not only is the project great for the environment it also supports a number of local species, such as the Comb Duck, African Bush Elephant and Aardvark, who rely on the mangroves for food and shelter. In addition, the project provides a range of employment opportunities to community members, and for every 10,000 trees planted, 20 work days are created for local community members. The carbon reduction of the project has proven to be significant, with an estimated 0.31 tonnes of CO2 sequestered per tree.
Verification
This project uses site technology, including Dendrometers, Soil Sensors, Bioacoustic Sensors, Light Sensors and weather stations, to ensure accuracy and precision in measuring impact. The process of measurement, reporting and verification starts with evaluating the size of the land targeted. Collecting and monitoring data on trees planted within the region. Verifying and publishing the data collated and then visualising and amplifying this through reports on the number of trees planted, hectares reforested, CO2 sequestered and work days provided.