In December 2017, the founder of Plastic Bank, David Katz, stood on the Ted podium and said with grief:
'We are all wrong! Governing the ocean, it is very unnecessary.' (We've have it all wrong. The very last thing we have to do is clean the ocean.)
He has a more daring idea than to control the ocean pollution: before the plastic enters the sea, it is recycled back. And he really did.
David Katz and another partner, Shaun Frankson, founded 'Plastic Bank', a business solution that combines plastics with economics to clean up plastic waste on the ocean: making recycled plastics a lot of money.
1, the pain point of the plastic recycling industry
From the source of manufacturing plastic waste - the consumer itself, seeking solutions to problems. David Katz's ideas closely match the current pain points of the plastic recycling industry.
The lack of incentives for consumer recycling behavior will directly cause difficulties in recycling waste plastics; the lack of data on the entire process of recycling channels will also make the recycling chain inefficient for a long time, high-cost operation, etc. These conditions limit the recycling of waste plastics. The development of the use of renewable resources industry is the pain point of industry development and industrial upgrading, and it is also resistance.
David Katz and his partner Shaun Frankson set up the first solar-powered waste recycling market in Haiti, where people can exchange a variety of plastic products to get some basic necessities, such as using solar energy to charge mobile phones, using sustainable Cooking fuel, etc.
Later, David Katz and his partners used blockchain technology to open 'Plastic Bank' around the world to turn plastic floating around the ocean into money in a safe and transparent way.
At the 'Plastic Bank' chain, people can exchange a range of products and services, such as cooking fuel, medicines, tuition, and Wi-Fi, through plastic waste as an equivalent currency. And the list of exchangeable products is still expanding. Future convertible products and services will cover as much as possible the needs of local residents.
It is understood that 'Plastic Bank' allows countless people on the beach to act, join the army of recycled plastics, every day there are endless people to deliver plastic, and more big companies such as German giant Henckels are vying to help them plastic.
While protecting the environment, it also provides a way to create income for residents in poverty-stricken areas. It fully mobilizes the enthusiasm and driving force of consumers to recycle plastics, making recycling of waste plastics no longer difficult.
2. How to turn waste plastic into money?
So, how does Plastic Bank use blockchain technology to turn waste plastic into money?
1 Make plastic a currency
If the plastic can be exchanged for other things, the price is right, then everyone will spontaneously pick up the plastic and the ground will be clean.
David Katz and Shaun Frankson set up Plastic Bank in developing countries to set up waste plastic recycling centers to encourage people to collect plastic waste from their lives, exchange them in cash at the recycling center, or buy things in the store.
The converted 'exchange rate' is 15 cents / kg, equivalent to about 2.1 yuan / kg. This price is higher than the market price, can generate income for the scavengers.
'About 2.7 billion people live on less than $2 a day. By revealing the value of plastics, we can unleash the energy and creativity of vulnerable groups and reveal people's value.' Shaun Frankson said.
2 plastic recycling
The recycled plastic will be transported to local partners for processing bundles, sheets or granules, and new materials will be delivered to the company's customers for new products. Henkel Group packaging experts are currently investigating the recycling of these recycled plastics. Product packaging.
Thomas Müller-Kirschbaum, head of global research and development at the Henkel Group's Home Care Department, said: 'Packaged products made from marine plastic waste recycled from Plastic Bank will be on sale in the second half of 2018, and more and more customers are demanding Companies provide sustainable solutions, and they want to see what they are doing. Marine plastics are just a small part of the recycled materials we use. In the future we want to change the entire supply chain and switch to a circular economy.
3 Financial inclusion and sustainability
Later, David Katz found that the security situation in many areas was not good and the cash was not safe; so he contacted IBM to jointly develop a banking application based on blockchain technology. Provided to garbage collectors worldwide. Safe and reliable way of value transfer. And through the gamification method to create a 'removal music' in the recycling industry. Further motivate people to use the application for plastic waste recycling.
Through blockchain technology, income can be directly entered into everyone's e-wallet, without worrying about cash being taken away on the road, ensuring the safety of being stolen in poor areas with high crime rates.
Garbage collectors can be provided with sufficient credit collateral in exchange for bank loans. Personal 'plastic footprints' are generated on the APP, including the efficiency of collecting plastics, the cumulative quantity and the quality of the collection work; these footprints can also be converted into personal credits. , used to apply for loan business.
Digital wallets provide a perfect solution for the poor living in unstable conditions, reducing crime and corruption, and giving people who have never had access to modern financial services in the past the opportunity to use modern digital banking.
Providing financial inclusion for the poor, enabling them to gain profit opportunities and credibility without being affected by high interest rates. Helping them build credit systems and ideas, encouraging them to increase returns by bringing more plastic waste, or by letting More people join this system.
3, a business model worthy of global popularity
According to the latest report of the Allen McCorther Foundation, global recycling of plastic waste accounts for only 14%, while the remaining 86% has the potential to generate $80-120 billion in revenue. The significance of Plastic Bank is to encourage the world. People and companies reconsider their plastic handling and become a positive driver of the circular economy.
Many companies have seen the influence of Plastic Bank and have come to work with them; including energy company Shell Energy, Britain's largest multinational commercial retail group Marks & Spencer, German consumer goods company Zwilling JA Henckels, etc. They participated in the annual Collecting plastic funding.
Almost every country in the world can benefit from a more efficient recycling system, which is why Plastics Bank is committed to buying or collecting plastics for billions of people around the world.
Haiti has a peculiar phenomenon: 75% of people do not have electricity at home, but smartphones are almost everyone.
It seems that the simple way has changed the world quickly. The application of blockchain technology in the renewable resources industry has epoch-making significance.
Just as a senior practitioner in the environmentally-friendly renewable resources industry, a pioneer in the combination of blockchain and green industry, Cheng Chunlong, the founder of the source blockchain, said in an interview with VE Finance and Golden Finance:
The blockchain is applied to the renewable resource industry, which can realize the trace of material flow, information flow and capital flow, and solve the problem of lack of trust and missing data.
Through the distributed and decentralized network architecture of the blockchain, the fast information matching between the supply and demand sides is realized, and the demand for high-cost centralized organizations is reduced.
Through a transparent and fair incentive system, consumers, recyclers, transporters, processing companies, producers and other renewable resources can be organically linked to guide changes in production relations, which in turn trigger economic models and industrial structures. Change, build a holistic functional ecosystem.