11 October 2019 — Pass it on!

1. Pass it on! Most subscribers hear about Little Blue Letter through friends and colleagues, so please take a moment to forward it to someone that may be in need of some ocean optimism.
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• National Geographic recently covered why there are high concentrations of plastic found in the Arctic. The plastic is brought in on winds and currents, and finding it in remote areas shows how far reaching this problem really is.

• Land based reduction is one of the most effective ways to reduce plastic pollution and the Ellen Macarthur Foundation published their 2019 progress report on corporate commitments towards a ‘New Plastics Economy’.The findings: major progress but still a long way to go on targets such as improving recyclability and reducing unnecessary packaging. 

• CLAIM is a Horizon 2020 project funded by the EU to tackle micro- and macro plastics through the development of both new technologies and innovative methodological approaches. We recently had our halfway meeting and shared updates on systems for prevention, transformation and monitoring marine plastic. 

19 partners from 13 countries all dedicated to fighting plastic pollution

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#OceanOptimism

• Blockchain for marine plastic, buzzword or potential gamechanger? Companies like Empower and PlasticBank are social enterprises using blockchain to certify litter collected around the world. As a plastic-using consumer or business, you can pay these organizations to ‘offset’ your plastic usage. rePurpose does this too (minus the blockchain).

• The Healthy Seas Initiative is a partnership between industry and an environmental NGO to create a sustainable supply chain for ghost fishing gear. They fund cleanup dives, then recycle the collected fishing nets into textiles which can be made into clothes, shoes and bags by partners. In my home country of the Netherlands, they recovered 23 tons of gear this year!

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Gif of the week

Too good to be true? E6PR makes edible and biodegradable 6-pack rings 

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More on the business of marine plastic

• How Cheap Robots Are Transforming Ocean Exploration on Outside makes a case for crowdfunding, open source and lean design as tools to improve marine research, but I’m wary of all the venture capitalists entering the field. Great long read!

• Ubuntoo is a platform for scientists, policymakers, industry, nonprofits and investors to learn and connect. The platform is especially useful for finding plastic solutions and innovations along the value chain, and posts frequently about plastic news and research projects.

• The Ocean Cleanup recently launched their Interceptor to stop river plastic, joining The Great Bubble Barrier , Recycled Island Foundation and Plastic Whale as the fourth Dutch organization to stop river plastic before it can become marine plastic. Not bad for a small country!

How the bubble barrier stops waste (but not fish or boats)

 

Little Blue Letter was curated this week by Hanna Dijkstra. Hanna is a PhD researcher at the Institute for Environmental Studies at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. She works with the CLAIM project to study how businesses and technologies can work to reduce plastic pollution on land and sea. Tweet her @hannadijkstra