How did you start PlasticShore?

I was raised in an environmentally conscious family and from a young age I was always aware of the problem that plastic pollution was causing. I couldn’t believe that each year millions of tons of plastic debris find a way into the marine environment. I decided to research the topic of recycling marine plastic debris for my honours thesis in 2010 because it combined my passion for environmental sustainability with my interest in social entrepreneurship.

I had no plans to start an NGO until after I graduated and did some traveling abroad in developing countries. Plastic pollution is a catastrophic problem in regions that don’t have government financed waste management infrastructure and education. People just had no idea about the ramification of littering on land and how it affected the marine environment.

I was motivated to find a way to mobilize companies to reduce the problem of plastic pollution because governments in these regions simply couldn’t keep up with the rapid growth of plastic pollution.

What has been the biggest challenge so far?

I had no idea how long it would take to gain traction as an organization.

In the early stages of the project, when PlasticShore was still in it’s infancy, I pitched the concept to groups like WWF and the Great Canadian Shoreline cleanup. I thought that it would be easy to position the project under the wing of a larger organization. However, I quickly found out that there were very few individuals with the job mandate to help develop this type of social enterprise and finding seed capital has been extremely difficult.

It was a major challenge growing the capacity of the organization while still juggling part time jobs to pay the rent. It has taken countless late nights and early mornings to get this project operational.

What do you see being the biggest challenge in the next 12 months?

We need to plan out growth strategy to ensure that we can maintain the integrity of our commitments with strategic partners. Pursuing opportunities beyond the capacity of the organization could be a potential downfall.

PlasticShore’s social enterprise concept is an excellent ay of mitigating the amount of money that communities spend on plastic pollution. however, if we are going to absorb all the overhead costs it will be difficult to grow the organization.

Where do you see PlasticShore in three years?

In 2013, our goal is to develop this product concept in the marketplace. We want to produce the most environmentally conscious product line possible.

As capacity grows we will seek to increase our impact by developing educational programs for the high school curriculum and by supporting green employment programs for individuals with multiple barriers to employment.

Over the summer we will develop a template to share with other NGOs who could benefit from implementing the social enterprise concept. We think that we can generate the greatest impact in developing countries.

It is really tough to project where this project will be in three years.

Shouldn’t the focus be on stopping the use of disposable plastics?

Yes! There certainly needs to be a shift away from disposable plastics, but I think the first step is to raise awareness about the impact that plastic pollution is having. We want to deliver a powerful anti-littering message to mainstream consumers by reinforcing the fact that 80% of marine plastic starts on land as litter.

One of the fundamental problems is that it is more expensive to purchase recycled plastic that it is to create “virgin plastic” derived from petroleum or natural gas. This results in a worldwide production of plastic that now exceeds 80 million tons a year. However, only a dismal 8% of plastic in North America is recycled…most of ends up in the landfill or being discharged into the marine environment.

Changing the way the plastic industry operates is an extremely difficult task.

Some economists propose a tax credit system to shift the industry so that manufacturing products from recycled plastic is cheaper than creating more virgin plastic. However, demand for recycled plastic is already roughly three times the supply. Increasing the demand through tax breaks would drive up the price. It’s hard to implement an incentive policy without raising the price of it through supply and demand.

We must find a way to prevent the human behaviour that contributes to plastic pollution. However, plastic pollution is a global problem and in regions that don’t have a strong NGO network or governmental infrastructure, companies must be engaged to help address the problem.

What are the different uses for the plastic?

Terminology for plastic recycling is complex and sometimes confusing because of the wide range of recycling and recovery processes. There are four main categories for recycling: primary (mechanical reprocessing into a product with equivalent properties), secondary (mechanical reprocessing into products requiring lower properties), tertiary (recovery of chemical constituents) and quaternary (recovery of energy).

Primary recycling is often referred to as closed-loop recycling, and secondary recycling as downgrading. Tertiary recycling is either described as chemical or feedstock recycling and applies when the polymer is de-polymerized to its chemical constituents.

Our mandate as an organization is to utilize plastic debris in the marketplace to generate the greatest possible impact within society and we pursue whichever recycling process allows us to adhere to that mandate.

Now, with the advent of 3D printing, plastic products can be produced without the need to accumulate the large volumes of plastic needed in the traditional manufacturing process.

What product lines do you plan on producing and will you be able to recycle low quality plastic debris?

The value proposition of the social enterprise does not come from the material value if the plastic debris. It comes from the benefits that we generate in the community and from the public outreach strategy that we provide companies. So long as the plastics can perform their intended functions, the quality of the plastics will not be a major issue.

The exact product we plan on producing is still a secret.