Annually, it is estimated that 353 million tons of plastic are generated to fuel our economy of which two-thirds will have a life span of less than five years before becoming discarded plastic waste. This is an alarming figure that seems to beg us to ask – where does all this plastic waste end up?
Unfortunately, about 90% of plastic waste ends up in the environment. This plastic waste ends up in our overcrowded landfills and is often discarded into our water system and the unprotected wilderness. It is consumed by wildlife and eventually ends up in our drinking water and the food we eat. It can be argued the reality is that plastic waste ends up everywhere. The good news is that there are organizations working to reverse this unfortunate reality. Importantly, there are many citizens concerned about where all this plastic waste ends up and they are motivated to change this sad reality. However, despite this news, much more needs to be done.
Certainly, there are many lesser-known plastic recovery projects with dedicated people performing the hard work that needs to be done, but many of these projects lack resources. Resources such as infrastructure support could increase the impact of their plastic recovery efforts. Also, often their efforts seem to receive little attention or go unnoticed. It is clear that plastic recovery projects need more support to get out their message about the efforts which are already happening in a community.
On the other hand, many citizens want to contribute to plastic recovery efforts, but do not know how to get involved. Or perhaps they want to contribute to these organizations, but they want to make sure when they support a project in such an opaque sector that their support goes towards achieving measurable added value. Moreover, we point out that further incentives for all users are needed to change the relationship we have with plastic usage and plastic waste mitigation.
PLASTIKS aims to support these plastic recovery projects and the efforts of people who contribute to them. Our mission is to increase the resources needed for plastic recovery and to give a larger voice to the people contributing to their efforts. We work to incentivize further action and to make transparent the actions being done to help plastic waste be recovered, recycled, and reintroduced into consumer value chains once again.
By following these six steps described below, you will understand how we incentivize accountability and how our plastic recovery guarantee ecosystem works.
6 steps for incentivizing accountability
Plastiks is a platform to incentive projects that are recovering plastic (and other waste) from the environment. Our blockchain-backed platform is designed to verify the data shared at every step. Due to this transparency, can access the information on our platform, and be assured that the projects funded through Plastiks are accountable for the relevant impact in their communities, which in turn incentivizes users to confidently support PLASTIK projects.
1. Collection of plastic waste
Worldwide, plastic recovery projects such as Green Mining (Brazil) and Esperanza (India) are the backbone of the Plastiks platform. These projects, collect plastic waste from around their local communities such as beaches, rivers, oceans, wastelands, villages, and neighborhoods. After recovering the plastic material, cleaning and sorting it properly per different types of plastic (PET, HDPE, PVC, LDPE, PP, PS, other) these projects negotiate the resale of these materials at a standard price that is established by each country or commercial region, which is usually negotiated in Tonnes.
Most projects do this work without the use of modern infrastructure, and it is a back-breaking manual process that results in the slimmest return on investment for everyone involved.
2. Generation of invoice
Plastiks uses the invoice data of plastic recovery projects to verify the materials which are cycled back up the value chain. When selling this material for recycling, which will transform them into plastic pellets or granules, each plastic recovery project generates an invoice with a tax identification number, location, date, quantity, and type of plastic recovered. This invoice is the formal document that proves that the material was recovered and sold for recycling.
3. Verification of invoice by Plastiks
The data of this invoice are then uploaded to the Plastiks platform, and it serves as the proof of recovery plastic credit. The proof-of-recovery plastic credit data are time stamped and stored on the blockchain as an NFT digital asset, which makes it immutable and transparent for our purposes.
4. Plastic Recovery Guarantees (PRG NFTs)
The invoice is digitalized on our blockchain-powered marketplace as a Plastic Recovery Guarantee™ (as an NFT digital asset – a unique digital certification). It is a type of plastic credit, representing a certain amount and type of recovered plastic. Important to note that we use a carbon-neutral, Proof-of-stake blockchain solution.
Why do we use Blockchain to ensure a more sustainable value chain?
Plastiks uses Blockchain and self-enforcing smart contract technology to enable the time-stamped tracking of transactions that provides immutable data provenance and thus further value chain transparency. At every stop of the waste management value chain, data from physical and digital transfers can be confidently tracked on our platform, helping to reduce the amount of plastic and other waste streams which end up in landfills or incinerators. Due to the data immutability, any user can audit transactions to identify fraudulent or negligent practices, providing incentives for across the system, and thus facilitating user trust.
Why do we use NFTs (Non-fungible tokens)?
NFTs can determine their owner at all times. They represent a secure and immutable certificate of ownership in the blockchain.
5. Sponsor a plastic recovery project
Plastiks and our Plastic Recovery Guarantee™ platform provide an ecosystem where any user has access to engage and collaborate with each other, which creates a multiplier effect when promoting and sponsoring plastic recovery projects. While other plastic credit platforms on the market may offer sponsorship packages, our ecosystem uses data to demonstrate the effectiveness of each sponsorship, while rewarding them for sharing their data to make future sponsorships even more effective.
The PRGs from projects are listed on our marketplace so they can be acquired by users (i.e., companies or individuals) who wish to sponsor the work of plastic recovery worldwide, with a special focus on projects in developing countries.
Users can target the type of plastic recovery projects that they would like to sponsor. They can choose the region and country where the recovery project is located, The decision to choose a project could be perhaps triggered by an emotional connection to the work being done or by a strategic decision for the business, or both. For example, our client the Hotel Lancaster in Paris, chose to sponsor the Brazilian project, Green Mining, because many of their customers are from Brazil. Hence, they wanted a project supporting the local Brazilian community as a way to demonstrate a further investment in their customer’s local communities, as well as to show that Hotel Lancaster shares the values of its customers.
6. Provide environmental and social support
These projects generate a significant social impact:
- Dignifying the work of waste pickers
- Improving workers’ conditions and employing more people with low job opportunities
- Investing in better infrastructure and equipment
- Providing education about plastic circularity and recycling to local communities
- Creating awareness and sharing the importance of the work in their region
Users can then demonstrate their verifiable environmental action to the community by also sharing their commitment with the global community. See one of them here
Now that you know how our ecosystem works, we can guide you through a quick and intuitive demo, so you can better understand how your company can join others that are already taking action and contributing to removing plastic from the environment. Book your demo!
