Seven Clean Seas Tackles the Massive World of Plastic Pollution

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Rivers of plastic are flowing into the ocean — literally. A garbage truck's worth of plastic enters the ocean every minute, according to the World Economic Forum. Much of that sinks or ends up in coastal environments, but some escapes to the open ocean. Once there, the primarily non-biodegradable junk can last for a long time, from decades to centuries. To make matters worse, the amount of plastic entering the ocean is predicted to triple by 2040, to 29 million metric tons a year, if nothing is done.

A growing pool of innovators are focused on cleaning up this floating junkyard from the world’s oceans, including those behind Seven Clean Seas. Based in Southeast Asia, the social enterprise built a business around environmental cleanup, social responsibility and the circular economy. Led by a pair of young co-founders, it’s forging a trail to a better future for the environment and local communities. 

With the tagline “The seas are f***ing awesome,” this offbeat company is serious when it comes to plastic pollution. It started with coastal cleanups in Indonesia, which is marred by plastic floating in from the South China Sea or dumped by local coastal and fishing communities.  

“We quickly realized that it was extremely efficient to focus on coastal communities where leakage is high,” said Tom Peacock-Nazil, CEO and co-founder of Seven Clean Seas. “We find a coastal community with a thousand households, and no waste management, period." 

The company's work, like the plastic waste crisis itself, has a strong social component. "The issues around waste are also social injustice issues since not everybody has access to waste management, which should be a basic human right. And it disproportionately affects the poorest communities," Peacock-Nazil said. "So, we move in and hire people from the community — we won't bring in outsiders.”

Its track record is impressive, having recovered nearly 1.7 million kilograms (or nearly 2.9 million pounds) of plastic since 2018, with the aim to recirculate that mountain of trash for further use. Recovered plastic is sent to a newly constructed materials recovery facility on the island of Bintan, Indonesia, where it’s sorted for either recycling or processing. 

Unfortunately, it’s much more of the latter than the former. Only 5 percent of the recovered plastic can be recycled since, ultimately, most plastic is not recyclable, Peacock-Nazil said.

For the other 95 percent of the waste it collects, Seven Clean Seas had to be creative. For instance, it made investments to turn plastics into construction materials like cinder blocks. This material outperforms concrete while also avoiding the carbon emissions from concrete production, Peacock-Nazil said. Wood alternatives can also be made from some of the harder plastics.

 In a parallel effort, the company is looking to stem the tide of plastic entering the ocean from rivers. A significant amount of ocean plastic pollution — up to 2.4 million metric tons each year — can be traced to rivers. Seven Clean Seas is testing a large-scale floating barrier on the Chao Phraya River in Thailand. This device captures plastic but only extends about a meter into the water, allowing marine life to pass underneath. 

“We’re partnering with a Thai Buddhist temple, Wat Chak Daeng,” Peacock-Nazil said. “These monks are already recycling [plastic] bottles from their local community into polyester fabric and wearing that in their monks' robes. They're really in circularity, in waste management, and have a fully functioning materials recovery facility behind their temple." Waste collected from the Chao Phraya barrier will go to the temple's recovery center to be put to a second use. "It's going be a very exciting project," he said. 

 Courtesy: www.triplepundit.com