Last year, we sat with our friends at Seatrade Cruise to discuss the possibility of creating a brand new podcast together. Fast forward to the present and we’re delighted to say that series 1 of Tech Talks is now complete! In this final episode, Co-Founder and CEO of theICEway Ian Richardson chats with Joel Tasche, Co-CEO and Founder of CleanHub. The two discuss CleanHub’s mission to address plastic pollution by building waste management systems and infrastructure. With a goal to prevent 50% of new ocean plastic, the pair then focus upon the next steps towards achieving that. Read on for more about CleanHub and for some key points from ‘Tech Solutions to Plastic Pollution’. Alternatively, listen to the episode in full using the link below.
CleanHub
In their own words, “it was a love of the ocean that led us to start CleanHub.” Starting life as a tech company, the problem of plastic pollution soon had a mobilising effect on the team. With over 11 million tonnes of plastic waste entering the oceans every year, CleanHub decided to dedicate themselves towards protecting them by solving the plastic pollution issue. After much research, it became apparent that the real problem was non-recyclable plastics such as grocery bags, wrappers, and food containers. Therefore, steps were taken to “build an equal economy for the non-recyclable plastic that isn’t currently collected because it has no value.”
CleanHub partnered with local waste collection companies and Geocycle, who could utilise non-recyclable plastic waste as fuel. They built software to track every step of the disposal process from waste collection to the final co-processing of the material. Today, they have the capacity to process more than the yearly 11 million tonnes of plastic waste entering the oceans.
Read more at the official CleanHub website.
‘Tech Solutions To Plastic Pollution’ Podcast Highlights
Ian Richardson (IR): “I’m going to start off by making 2 key statements: Every minute, the equivalent of 1 garbage truck of plastic is dumped into our ocean. 2 Billion people in coastal regions worldwide don’t have access to proper waste management.”
IR: “Why is plastic so much of an issue in our oceans?”
Joel Tasche (JT): “There [are] multiple issues that we have… obviously it harms the wildlife. By nature it is very durable… it is being ingested by multiple different animals in the marine ecosystem.”
IR: “You went out and did an awful lot of research… on the ground, right?”
JT: “Exactly… we had to do a lot of leg work… and met the local people working in waste management. In the end, it is mostly an economic problem… and our approach now is to give waste a value.”
IR: “You’re working with local partners.. and you’re providing the tech… [to] look at all the data.”
JT: “We have local waste management companies who use our technology to collect evidence that they are really collecting the waste…. we play that evidence back to the brands that are sponsoring the system… [so they can see that] there is an actual impact on the ground.”
Tracking Waste Collection And Scaling Up Volumes
IR: “The way your platform comes into it is the ability to track and trace?”
JT: “Exactly. People are quick to say this is greenwashing and we are quick to counter. The data we collect verifies that it is true.”
IR: “Tech is continuously evolving, how are you evolving the platform at the moment?”
JT: “In the general topic of plastic pollution we think a lot [about] downstream solutions. And then there [are] upstream solutions… what can we do in the supply chains. We are currently looking at building a solution centre.”
IR: “What are your objectives for the next 5 years?”
JT: “Mainly scaling up volumes… plastic waste volume collected.”
JT: “In total, we have this bigger goal of preventing 50% of new ocean plastic…”
Tech Talks Series 1
Listen to 'Tech Solutions to Plastic Pollution'. This episode marks the end of our first series. Avid readers of our blog will now have access to all 6 episodes but we’ll release them all together in the weeks ahead. Look out for series 2 towards the end of 2023 and a huge thank you to all who helped us make it all happen!
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