MARINE DEBRIS - Marine Pollution: What Everyone Needs to Know - page 60

return systems. An organization called the Plastic Bank is set-
ting up plastic repurposing centers around the world in areas
with an abundance of both plastic waste and poverty. Their
goal is to remove plastic from the environment while helping
people rise from poverty. They will provide education and the
opportunity to trade reuseable plastics for credits that can be
used for microfinance loans or other projects. However, there
has been little widespread application of these approaches.
Despite the abundance of information, projects, and regula-
tions, marine debris remains a major problem because people
still generate the debris and laws are not well enforced. The
amount of marine debris is highly variable, but amounts have
been increasing by about 5% per year.
Can new technologies reduce the problems of marine debris?
Recycling of plastic is highly effective in some countries
(Switzerland, 98%; Germany, 95%), but open landfills and no
recycling are still the norm in many places. Ecover, a European
cleaning brand, announced that it will use plastic waste from
the sea to create a new type of sustainable and recyclable plastic
bottle. The company is working to combine plastic waste with
a plastic made from sugar cane and recycled plastic for pack-
aging. Boats with trawls will collect plastic waste for cleaning
and recycling, while other fishermen will collect plastic debris
mixed with bycatch and deposit it at special collection points.
The sorted waste will be sent to a recycling plant, where it
will be turned into the plastic for the new bottles. A carpet
tile company and the Zoological Society of London are coop-
erating in a program called Net-Works that pays people in the
Philippines for used nets, which are recycled into carpet tiles.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is partnering with
the Bionic Yarn Co, and Parley for the Oceans in The Vortex
Project, which removes plastic from the ocean and transforms
it into fashion. The Vortex Project takes waste from the oceans
and shorelines, and recycles, enhances, and reuses it for yarn