After talking with Brianne Miller, Co-founder of Zero Waste Market, a new no-packaging grocery store looking to open in Vancouver fall 2016, I decided to look further into the problem of ocean plastics.

Immediately I was shocked to realize a) how large of a problem it was, and b) how little is being done to remove this plastic. Just as I was reaching some upsetting conclusions about humanity I ran across The Ocean Clean Up project. Founded by Boyan Slat (NLD) in 2013, they have designed a system that will be able to clean up the pacific garbage patch in a 20 year timeframe.

Retrieved from https://www.bookyourdive.com/blog/2014/3/23/great-pacific-garbage-patch

While this project immediately restored my faith in humanity it raised one, seemingly overlooked, question, what are they going to do with the plastic once they get it out of the ocean? Right now the alternatives for disposing of plastic are fairly limited, requiring extensive sorting and, at best, still result is some about of down-cycling. 8 million tonnes of plastic presents a serious problem on dry-land as well.

Before I get too much further in my criticism it is important to note that part of The Ocean Clean Up has a three step plan: 1. Extraction 2. Prevention 3. Interception, so this is not a criticism on them as an organization but rather a reflection on the larger problem facing our world.

This presents an opportunity for innovators and entrepreneurs to come up with a way to use this recovered plastic. Adidas has already begun a prototype shoe that is made predominantly out of recycled ocean plastic. While it remains to be seen if this is an ongoing product or merely a marketing stunt, it is exactly this kind of creative thinking that will help us keep plastic out of the ocean, separating The Ocean Clean Up’s Promethean path from inevitable continuity.

It is also great to see companies like Zero Waste Market tackling plastics at the source, proving that our society doesn’t need plastics we’ve just grown accustomed to the convenience.