The problem of marine plastics pollution--and plastics pollution
in general--is well documented; by some estimates, up to 90% of
debris in oceans is plastic of one form or another. But what to
do about it? The Hong Kong-based NGO Ocean Recovery Alliance
recently organized an event in Rio to look at solutions. Here
director Doug Woodring talks through some of them. Woodring says
the issue in the post-consumer supply chain isn’t a lack of
demand, but that it’s hard to get recycled plastic in re-usable
forms. There is a drastic need for more machines like ones
developed by MBA Polymers, a California company that
electronically sorts 40 plastics types into feedstocks. "When
technologies are employed, there are opportunities for societal
gain from less garbage, and some financial gain from reselling
the material. The question is getting these machines at scale,"
Woodring says. And getting the garbage. Many municipalities
allow intermediaries to sort through the trash, pick out the
valuable plastics, and sell the b