Saving the ocean by buying new, recycled products?
For example with these.
Brilliant. Right?
"Right now and at scale there is no such thing as recycled ocean plastic."
So, is recycling ocean plastic actually doable or
is it just another lousy greenwashing method that companies throw at us?
If you go shopping today, recycled products are literally
everywhere. And the holy grail is: Recycled products from the ocean.
Coca Cola loves to use marine plastic for marketing.
Adidas as well. With their Ocean Ultraboost Sneaker.
I mean these ads really make me believe that I can save the ocean by
drinking a Coke or buying a new sneaker.
But once you start looking into it, there isn’t really much collecting of
actual ocean plastic going on.
Once plastic lands in the ocean,
you’ll have a really hard time getting it out again. Even when it’s near the surface.
You really wish, I’d be this easy, but surprise it’s not. Not even close.
Sure you can deploy boats that fish for plastic, but this is all
very expensive. And relative to the millions of tonnes of plastic that are already
in the ocean, most boats only retrieve two tons maximum per day.
Even projects backed by millions of dollars struggle. This tube was supposed to get
rid of 90% of plastic in the ocean. But it didn’t work and the focus was shifted
to rivers instead.
Once you get the plastic out of the ocean,
you’ll have dozens of different types of plastic to sort through. Like these lost
fishing nets that Professor Gillian Gerke tried to recycle for a research project.
This works. Lets see what we got.
This batch is pre-sorted, but it’s still a mess. We need to seperate it further.
"We want the blue ones."
Ok, lets put the blue on the left hand side.
Sorting these nets according to their color is one thing,
but they also need to be cut down to recycle them.
But these really won’t give up easily.
It’s really like your scissor is made out of wood.
Even recycling the stuff that we throw in our bins is pretty hard like I found out in my last video:
But this is a really different ball game.
Especially because ocean plastic has been degraded by salt and sunlight.
So, it loses a lot of its original quality.
"Next step would be get rid of the dirt."
Even a tiny amount of sand, seaweed or shells can make plastic non-recyclable.
"Round about 5% impurities a recycler can work with. So, if we give them the material to
somebody who makes pellets out of it. They say: Not more than 5% impurities. That’s pretty clean!"
Even when cleaned industrially, sand can still be found on a microscopic level.
Which is why in a lot of cases, products contain a mix of ocean plastic and other recycled materials.
But the “ocean plastic” can only be a tiny tiny
fraction of this blend. But the ads still look like this:
All of these products are made with nylon from Econyl.
Even the company markets its yarn like it’s made from actual marine litter such as discarded fishing nets known as ghost gear.
"Things that are marketed from econyl which are called made from marine litter
or made from ghost gear. And there is literally no ghost gear in these products or very very very little.
Less than a percent or less than a per mille."
Environmental scientist Andrea Stolte has been in contact with Econyl
several times about its problematic messaging.
In an email Econyl told me that ocean plastic only represents a “small part” of its yarn.
For our next recycling step, we had to use material prepared by Professor Gilian Gerke.
Otherwise we would’ve been cutting here for days.
These plastic pellets have been turned into a letter opener.
"This is our final product. After the steps you have just seen with us,
you can imagine how expensive it has been. Roughly 200 Euros."
200 Euros?!
"Yes, all handmade!"
Which these products aren’t. They’re made industrially.
But are about the same price as non-ocean plastic products.
This only works by using very little ocean plastic or plastic that hasn’t actually been in the ocean.
"Right now and at scale there is no such thing as recycled ocean plastic."
This is Raffi Schieir. An international distributor
for something called “Ocean Bound Plastic”.
The term refers to plastic waste that is found within 50 kilometers of coastlines and is likely
to end up in the ocean. It applies exclusively to countries with poor waste management systems.
And when you dig a little or way way deeper you’ll find it a lot on companies websites.
Land-based ocean-bound plastic is everywhere.
This makes it a lot easier to collect and process than plastic that has actually has been in the ocean. It's cheaper.
Let’s look at prices per tonne for that.
Virgin plastic costs 762 Euros and recycled plastic goes for about
870 Euros. Ocean-bound plastic is around 920 Euros.
This seems relatively affordable compared to actual ocean plastic. Judging from the 200 Euro letter opener.
So production costs are likely to be much higher if real ocean plastic is used.
"There is no need for brands to overreach their marketing for what can be such a powerful story
of cleaning up our coastlines and supporting coastal communities. Why do we have to pretend that it’s coming out of the ocean.
Instead of saying what it is and delivering to customers on that promise."
Like Adidas who marketed their Oceans Ultraboost Sneaker as made from
actual ocean plastic when in fact ocean bound plastic was used to produce the shoe.
Even smaller companies have difficulty proving where the plastic actually comes from.
GOT BAG, a German backpack manufacturer, advertises its products as created from actual
ocean plastic. They use a network of fishermen and women who collect plastic as bycatch.
But as of now, they haven’t certified this step of production.
So, we don’t really know if it’s actual ocean plastic.
What we do know is recycling only works as a last resort.
Using ocean or ocean bound plastic instead of virgin
plastic is a small win for the environment.
Just not as big as some companies want you to believe.
So really look closely at what you’re buying. Read the fine print. Yeah, be that annoying person.
Embrace it. Otherwise your good intentions will probably just stay that.
Thank you so much for watching this video and staying with me on this messy topic.
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