Solutions

The Surprising Solution to Ocean Plastic

This talk was presented at a TED Institute event given in partnership with IBM. TED editors featured it among our selections on the home page. Read more about the TED Institute.

Can we solve the problem of ocean plastic pollution and end extreme poverty at the same time? That’s the ambitious goal of The Plastic Bank: a worldwide chain of stores where everything from school tuition to cooking fuel and more is available for purchase in exchange for plastic garbage — which is then sorted, shredded and sold to brands who reuse “social plastic” in their products.

Join David Katz to learn more about this step towards closing the loop in the circular economy. “Preventing ocean plastic could be humanity’s richest opportunity,” Katz says.

David Katz is founder and CEO of The Plastic Bank, the world’s only organization to monetize plastic waste and provide an opportunity for the world’s disadvantaged to collect and trade plastic waste as a currency.

More about ocean plastic:

Plastic degrading in the oceans release chemicals into the water

Update: Remember the Young Man With a Plan to Rid Oceans of Plastic?

The Curse of Plastic Ocean Waste Now Part of the Cure

Microplastics in our mussels: the sea is feeding human garbage back to us

Summary
Title
The Surprising Solution to Ocean Plastic
Description

"Preventing ocean plastic could be humanity's richest opportunity," Katz says. David Katz is founder and CEO of The Plastic Bank, the world’s only organization to monetize plastic waste and provide an opportunity for the world's disadvantaged to collect and trade plastic waste as a currency.

Recent Posts

Scathing report released detailing Navy’s handling of Red Hill fuel spill

The Inspector General of the Department of Defense released some scathing reports Thursday over the…

5 days ago

Growing Food Instead of Grass Lawns in California Front Yards

Photo: Morgan Boone, a volunteer with Crop Swap LA, harvested lettuce at the La Salle…

2 weeks ago

LA River restoration connects us back to ‘the life force of our city’

Los Angeles residents at a section of the Los Angeles River cleanup in Los Angeles,…

3 weeks ago

LAist: New study raises questions about heavy metals in fire retardants

Over the past decade, about 67 million gallons of fire retardant have been dropped on…

3 weeks ago

Meadow and watershed restoration in the Golden Trout Wilderness

Photo: Golden Trout Wilderness Seeking blue, seeing gold The Kern Plateau features a chain of…

3 weeks ago

First sighting of salmon in 100 years marks key milestone for California dam removal

For the first time in more than a century, a salmon was observed swimming through Klamath…

4 weeks ago