PLASTIC CLEANUP
and recycle units /
fight microplastics and save health
communities with rivers and coast
SDG 1,3,4,6,9,10,14,15
THE PLASTIC PROBLEM
Plastic pollutes the environment. There are 100 million tonnes of it in the oceans. It breaks down into microplastics, is ingested by plants and animals, and thus enters the food chain. Plastic has already been found in human organs. A particularly large amount accumulates in the brain. This is not healthy. We are taking action to make things better!
OUR SOLUTION
As there isn’t enough money to pay people to clear up all the plastic waste, we’re taking a new approach: we turn the waste into useful products that generate income. The trick is to create a system that is financially self-sustaining with as little investment as possible. These are our Cleanup & Recycle Units. We equip small teams in coastal towns to collect, process and sell plastic professionally. A small initial investment that permanently lifts people out of poverty and permanently removes harmful plastic from the environment.
Fight microplastic in the ocean & reduce poverty
With a donation of €!5,000, we can kick-off a recycling unit following the example of Precious Plastic and remove over 126 tonnes* of plastic from the environment. This will reduce poverty of 5 people!
*equivalent to the amount of plastic waste generated by 353 people in Freiburg in 2023
2,5+
tons of plastic removed from nature
00
Recycle Units built
00
people lifted out of poverty
In a first step, we want to collect plastic waste with three people over a period of four months. We need gloves, masks and tools so that contact with the rubbish remains healthy for the collectors. High visibility waistcoats with labelling are necessary to indicate the campaign and avoid unnecessary problems with the population. Recyclable bags are needed to collect the plastic waste.
To fish plastic out of rivers, there are floating barriers on which the rubbish can collect. The water barriers are handmade customised products made from commercially available materials.
With this project, we want to create a sustainable income for internally displaced people in a crisis area and at the same time free the environment from 126 tonnes of plastic waste. The cleanup involves the permanent collection of harmful plastic from the environment. Especially along the sea coast, from where it accumulates as microplastics in the oceans and ultimately enters the human food chain.
For this production unit we follow the open source concept of Precious Plastic. As a preliminary product, we generate small shredded plastic shreds. A hydraulic plastic press processes the shredded plastic into sheets in various sizes and densities. The plastic sheets weight around 20kg and are used for residential purposes and have a retail value of approx. 35 Euro. Selling these sheets shall pay the income for all workers to continue the project over years. The project organises trainings, installation, collection, seperation, production and sales over a period of 6 months.
In order to recycle the collected plastic, 6,300 tons of plstic must first be sorted into the different types of plastic. No mistakes can be made during this step, as otherwise there may be health risks during processing.
We need several suitcase scales to weigh the quantities in the plastic bags. The plastics can then be passed on to recycling companies. They are thus permanently removed from the environment and no longer pose a risk of ending up as microplastics in the sea.
HOW HARMFUL ARE MICROPLASTICS?
“Research on the health impacts of microplastics in humans is just beginning. The particles have been found in multiple organs and tissues, including the brain, testicles, heart, stomach, lymph nodes and placenta. They've also been detected in urine, breastmilk, semen and meconium, which is a newborn's first stool. "We're born pre-polluted," LaBeaud said.”
HEALTH IMPACT OF MICROPLASTIC
“Humans are exposed to microplastics by ingesting contaminatedfoodandbeveragesor inhalingairborne microplastics. Once ingested, chemical substances can leach out, including those added to plastics to enhance their properties (e.g. plasticisers) which are known to cause adverse health effects to humans andanimals. While those chemical compounds are known to be toxic to humans and animals from (eco)toxicological assessments, there isinsufficient evidenceabout their effects as a result of exposure tomicroplastics.”
