Over the last decade, many initiatives have attempted to collect ocean plastic and divert soft plastic from landfills; however, the key barrier to recycling these plastics is the lack of a stable market and the quality of the stock due to both degradation and the mixing of different types of plastics. Without a consistent price, quality, or stable supply of plastic feedstock for manufacturers, it becomes impossible and too risky to build businesses or supportive large-scale infrastructure, products and solutions that will solve the plastic waste issue permanently.
Plastic waste is a global environmental, health, and economic crisis. Global plastic production has risen exponentially in the last decade, estimated to be 400 million tonnes produced annually, with more than 8.3 billion metric tonnes of plastic having been produced worldwide since the 1950s. It is estimated that only 9% of all plastic ever made has been recycled, 12% incinerated, and the remaining 79% still sits in landfills or the natural environment.
Every day, the equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic are dumped into the world's oceans, rivers, and lakes, with 19-23 million tonnes of plastic waste leaking into aquatic ecosystems, polluting lakes, rivers and seas each year.
Plastic pollution can alter habitats and natural processes, reducing ecosystems’ ability to adapt to climate change, and directly affecting millions of people’s livelihoods, food production capabilities, health, and social well-being.
Ocean plastics, in particular, are degraded by UV radiation and saltwater, making them unsuitable for many recycling avenues. They are a mix of plastics of multiple sizes, which also adds to the difficulty in sorting and processing. Further, plastic in the ocean and landfills reaches beyond the policy of a single nation or government, despite the adverse impact on the economy and well-being of coastal communities, specifically. Addressing the mounting crisis of our global growing plastic consumption (and waste) requires a global lateral solution that seizes on the ample supply of plastic waste within a model that is flexible enough to navigate a changing market and a diversified feedstock supply chain.
Based on current and projected consumption, we are on track for plastic waste entering aquatic ecosystems could triple by 2040, and we aren’t slowing down as global production of plastics is set to reach 1,100 million tonnes per year by 2050. This industry is ripe for disruption based on the following key findings from our business and market research:
Objective 1: Target hard-to-recycle plastics
The action of creating circularity with hard-to-recycle plastics deals with the complex plastics challenge that Australia and other countries are facing. In Australia, 6% of soft plastics are currently being recycled, plastic accounts for 85% of total marine waste, and there are approximately 170 trillion pieces of plastic in our oceans, and these numbers continue to grow (exponentially). Every piece of plastic that was ever produced still exists in our living environment. It doesn’t decompose but instead breaks down into smaller pieces.
Objective 2: Create efficient supply chains and distribution networks
We create closed-loop production that can be scaled through a network approach, which results in a decreased risk of scaling up and more resilient revenue streams.
We generate revenue by addressing costly infrastructure and transportation issues, and by bringing the solution to the source of plastic waste. This creates significant access to recycling infrastructure, lowers hefty supply chain and waste management costs, and overall increases recycling for more types of plastics while stabilising feedstock markets.
Objective 3: Target coastal regions and rural communities
We work in both highly populated coastal regions and rural contexts to divert plastics from the ocean and landfills through partnering with soft plastic collectors to create stable markets for the supply of feedstock. Pelagic provides a modular solution for construction industries and can plug into existing recycling infrastructure.
We deliver local and accessible plastic waste solutions to hard-to-reach rural and coastal communities across Australia, which enables effective conservation of ecological resources by:
Objective 4: Enable regenerative economies in order to protect ecology
We work with communities, land councils, and organisations that are doing clean-ups, conservation, and environmental management to support their ongoing capacity through partnering, building markets, and supporting local regenerative efforts.
Our mission is to protect nature, and this is an embedded factor in all decisions we make and all actions we take. The major ecological benefits of Pelagic include:
Objective 5: Build livelihood and regional capacity
When we implement a factory, we engage the local labor force in partnership with a national recruitment company to hire and staff regionally. Each Pelagic modular factory creates local jobs and economic activity, builds local skills and livelihood, while commercialising functional and beautiful building products made from plastic waste. Pelagic factories are easy to set up, require minimal expertise, and can be operated with little training, enabling economic development within remote and regional, as well as coastal, communities.
Ultimately, Pelagic not only solves a waste problem, it also contributes to the resilience of the communities where we work to manage, and maintain their environment, build enterprises around Pelagic factories and strengthen the socio-economic fabric of the communities where we are located.