Anyone who has spent time in Southeast Asia will know that significant amounts of plastic waste is finding it’s way into the marine environment. Cultural and structural change is required to reduce this process.
People in developing nations need our support to deal with the plastic that is entering their communities as food packaging and other items. Some may consider this problem to be in a faraway land and not our problem. Well, the reality is that via the oceans, we are all interconnected. If we don’t become involved, plastic will just continue to multiply in our oceans.
Coming from Australia, Carlos and Adrian were used to someone simply collecting their family’s waste each week via a kerbside collection. In their home, they separated recycling from general waste, and then it all magically disappeared to be dealt with by someone else in a structured waste management facility.
Their first-hand experience of living in remote communities without any form of collection or waste management systems was the spark that prompted them to think about how they could make a difference.
Carlos and his children created the Sea Monkey Project (the name of their sailing boat) to help educate local people (specifically the young) about better ways to manage plastic waste. Kids are great ambassadors for environmental change.
To help fund the Sea Monkey Project a collaboration of supporters provided funding and commenced a social enterprise company called loop2cycle.
We now provide commercially viable and sustainable processes, including machines, that enabled local communities in developing nations to create employment and even profit from their plastic waste.
When plastic waste is viewed as a valuable resource, people stop throwing it away or burning it. They look toward selling it. Nothing of value gets wasted in developing countries, every little bit helps.
Education and collection programs combined with the machines provided by loop2cycle have proven to be a winning formula in getting plastic waste off the ground and keeping oceans cleaner.
The goal is for every community on earth to have the machinery, infrastructure, and education required to manage their waste plastic sustainably at the source.
