What do we do with the waste?

As part of our mission to rid the world's oceans of plastic, we've come into a lot of waste. A lot of waste. So what do we do with it? Here, in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, we are in international waters. No one owns this part of the ocean. No one owns the trash floating in the GPGP. No one takes responsibility. At least until we come along and take it out. Once it hits the deck, this waste is now property of the ocean cleanup. One part of it goes to research. The rest is processed and turned into meaningful products that can support our mission. It's good material, but it shouldn't be out there. Now we have it on deck. The next step will be to bring it onshore and with all our recyclers to convert it back into something useful. To get to this point, we have done years of research and development on how to turn this into this, this, and this. We catch what we catch. We don't catch for making products. We catch to clean rivers and oceans. And after that, we make products to inspire and to showcase that it's possible. Like the Ocean Cleanup Sunglasses, the first product that we developed and sold ourselves. This not only raises awareness of plastic pollution, but it also funds the cleanup and challenges perceptions of what waste is. The reason why we developed the sunglasses was to showcase for the first time that something is possible to be done with our plastic and especially a high-quality, high-end product. We are here at the Proof of Concept Square, which is an inspirational space at the Ocean Cleanup, where everything you can see around us is made out of the plastic that we have cut. Even the table and the chairs are made out of our plastic. The idea of these products is not necessarily items that we want to produce as the Ocean Cleanup. It is practically to change the narrative, showcase what is possible with something that is considered plastic waste. But here at the Ocean Cleanup, we don't perceive it as waste, but as a valuable raw material to show that what the industry believes that might be difficult to achieve, either a processing method or coloring, that all of this is possible to do, but it might require to change the way you're working right now. In rivers, however, the story is different because each deployment is different. Our interceptors operate in a variety of different countries, rivers, and contexts. We have projects in Latin America. We have projects in the U.S. We have projects in Asia. What we try to do is to understand each context. So before implementing or deploying a project, we go there to do a waste management assessment. We are always working for a local-based waste management solutions in the country because we cannot replicate what works in other countries directly to another country. It simply is not possible. Operational agreements change from country to country, but in general there's two common points. We have limited ownership of the waste our interceptors catch, and we are usually able to support and co-develop solutions with our partners to manage the waste responsibly. Now the solutions are going to be different from location to location depending on the relationship we build with local partners and governments, but also depending on what infrastructure is available. For example, our project in Los Angeles, the government, Los Angeles Department of Public Works, manages the project but also manages the waste from extraction, transportation, to sorting where the recyclables are taken for recycling and the residual waste is disposed at a sanitary landfill. In Panama, we have a local partner, Marea Verde, and we are co-responsible for what will be done with the waste. So usually we sort when we are extracting and all the plastic will go to recycling and the mixed waste will go to the disposal site. In Malaysia, we had an opportunity to build a sorting facility after we understand the waste composition, and there was also an interest from the local operator as well as external funders. And by doing sorting, we can open job opportunities for the local communities. But not only that, I think sorting is the most important first step for us to recover value from the waste and then we can sell it to the local of takers and it can enter the local recycling market. The complexities don't stop there. Our river catch is very different than what we extract from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in two other major ways, composition and pollution. While the trash we recover from the ocean is mostly plastic, in rivers we are also retrieving things like household waste, invasive species like water hyacinth, and other debris. Not only that, but other pollutants and trash can contaminate the plastic, reducing how much can be effectively recycled. These two factors vary from location to location and provide new challenges and opportunities for us and our partners. In Indonesia, where we also extract a lot of organics, the local operators came up with the idea of converting this wood into a furniture. It's really beautiful on how they invite the local craftsmen, so it's also not just about managing the wood waste but also being inclusive with the local craftsmen and making economic incentives for them as well. Because while our mission is to develop and scale solutions to clean the oceans, material recovery and reuse within local communities is a priority for us. And sometimes we have the chance to work with partners who share our vision to create something truly special to help support our mission. Practically here you see the state of the bottles that we collect from most river locations, specifically these come from Guatemala. And these are further washed and shredded into what you see here, and then they are further recycled into the ground lead you see here. This is the base ground lead that we used for the Cold Play record development. The reason why this is so impressive to introduce 70% of these bottles into an LP record of Cold Play is that any kind of impurity that could come out of very dirty river cut bottles can create defects in the sound and might not reach the quality that Warner would need. But this was not the case, and that again shows that the plastic we catch has a lot of potential. I'm also very proud that the raw material of the ocean cleanup is introduced into the new trunk liner for the new model of Kia, which is our global mission partner. They are one of the most reliable, safe car brands out there, and they took on the challenge to work with our material. And I'm so proud of how we work together with Kia and how we push the limits of R&D together. So what do we do with the waste? Everything we can. Because by co-developing solutions with local communities and partners, we can showcase what can be done with waste on our way to cleaner oceans.