…at least in some countries. This I have been told by the CTO and co-founder of Plastic Bank, Shaun Frankson.
Yet, before we talk about money, let’s have a look at something more important – our environment. “In the next 18 minutes over 600.000 (sic!) pounds of plastic will enter our ocean” as Shaun Frankson said during his TED talk. This is terrifying and founders of plastic Bank have been the people to recognise this problem and find a solution to it.
How to deal with a problem –> “Turn of the tap”
Which means to eliminate the source of the problem. It does not mean that humans should stop using using or producing plastic, but that we should stop throwing it away. That is why Plastic Bank have identified that 80% of the plastic is being frown away by the residents of developing countries. The reasons for that are very simple, firstly there is almost no implemented common waste management systems in the developing countries, secondly in many cases those people are fighting for survival, water, food, medicine, the lowest level of hygiene, maybe some very basic education for their children, and thus do not think any further than that, let alone about as sophisticated things as waste collection/segregation.
Plastic can take One out of poverty
Plastic is worth more than steel per 1kg – Plastic Bank came with a brilliant idea of monetising it in the developing countries. Plastic collectors are being paid in different ways (described later) for the collection of Plastic, sometimes (i.e. on Haiti) they are able to make 4 times what their normal day to day pay is. It is a absolute win-win situation, collectors are being paid and the environment is profiting.
All you need is Smartphone + Scale
Plastic is being collected in local Plastic Bank branches operated by trained operated, it is categorised by colour, weighted and valued. Person bringing plastic can be rewarded by variety of different things – energy, water, money, token in the application. You might now be thinking why a person in developing country would want a token in a application. Trust me they would, a community member is given a phone by Plastic Bank which people are using for the app, and by having this kind of token can securely pay for their healthcare, medicine or their kids education. Yes, you are right, this people, they are using Blockchain.
What happens with the collected plastic
It is being sold to some million and billion dollar companies, which let’s hope, after receiving enough recycled plastic will trust the supply chain enough to resign from using newly produced plastic when not technologically necessary. One of the biggest companies already partnering is Henkel ($20B revenue), they sponsor communities for plastic collection in Haiti, and obviously use recycled plastic for their own goods production.
Sources:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh-iIT_AQYk
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8pI6H5mzw0&t=739s
- https://www.plasticbank.com/