Our Sustainable Pledge: Supporting The Ocean Cleanup
As a part of our ongoing commitment to sustainability we support sustainable causes and charities that are making a positive impact. We are proud to support The Ocean Cleanup and help them with their important work.
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Over 5 trillion pieces of plastic currently litter the ocean. Every year, millions of tons of plastic enter the ocean from rivers, landfills and beach pollution. A significant percentage of this plastic drifts into large systems of circulating ocean currents, here the plastic waste collects, forming mass bodies of floating refuse. These garbage patches are one of the biggest environmental issues of our time, if left to circulate, the plastic will impact our ecosystems, health and economies.
Why The Ocean Cleanup?
These large garbage masses pose significant environmental risk and when left to circulate can cause irreputable damage. This plastic pollution is deadly to aquatic life who, due to the plastic size and colour of plastic waste, confuse the material for food, causing malnutrition and in some cases death. Once plastic enters the marine food web, there is a possibility that it will contaminate the human food chain, which may have dire and unknown consequences.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world. Located between Hawaii and California, the GPGP covers an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometers, an area twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France. (Pictured Below).
“According to the United Nations, plastic pollution is conservatively estimated to have a financial impact of 13 billion USD per year. The cost stems from the plastic’s impact on marine life, tourism, fisheries and businesses, impacting more than 600 marine species.”
How to tackle the plastic crisis: The Ocean Cleanup
Solving this colossal issue requires a combination of closing the source, and cleaning up the damage that has already accumulated in the ocean. This is where The Ocean Cleanup project plays a crucial role. Founded in 2013 by dutch inventor Boyan Slat, The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organisation that aims to develop advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. By utilizing ocean currents, the project has engineered passive drifting systems that concentrate and collect debris without harming native sea-life.
In 2018 The Ocean Cleanup launched its first cleanup system inside the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. By deploying a fleet of systems, the Ocean Cleanup has estimated to be able to remove 50% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in just 5 years’ time.
The collected plastic debris is brought back to shore for recycling and sold to B2C companies. The revenue gained will help fund the cleanup expansion to the other four ocean gyres.
The Ocean Cleanup develops vital and advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. We are proud to actively support The Ocean Cleanup scheme as part of our pledge to donate 10% of our profits to sustainable charities.
To date The Ocean Clean up have removed 100,000 kg of rubbish from The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). Since deployment in August 2021, System 002 (or “Jenny”) has now collected 101,353 kg of plastic over 45 extractions, sweeping an area of ocean of over 3000km2 – comparable to the size of Luxembourg or Rhode Island. Added to the 7,173 kg of plastic captured by our previous prototype systems, The Ocean Cleanup has now collected 108,526 kg of plastic from the GPGP – more than the combined weight of two and a half Boeing 737-800s, or the dry weight of a space shuttle!
To find out more about and to support the The Ocean Cleanup please head over to the website - here
To learn more about our sustainable pledge click here
