Social recycling movement hits plastic collection milestone

US-based manufacturer SC Johnson has prevented 40 000 tonnes of plastic waste from entering the oceans in collaboration with Plastic Bank since 2018.

The partnership has created over 500 collection branches across Indonesia, the Philippines, and Brazil, supporting more than 19 000 collection community members to achieve this milestone. The total volume collected is said to be the equivalent of 2 billion single-use bottles.

Plastic Bank was launched in 2013 to empower a ‘social recycling movement’ by transforming any plastic collected along the coastline into currency, called social plastic feedstock, to help alleviate poverty. It identifies vulnerable coastlines across the world that need plastic collection infrastructure and supports local entrepreneurs to establish collection branches.

‘We’re proud to partner with Plastic Bank and support recycling infrastructure to stop plastic before it reaches the ocean or landfill,’ says Fisk Johnson, ceo of SC Johnson. ‘Reintroducing the captured plastic into products and packaging is key to addressing the ocean plastics crisis.’

‘Plastic pollution and poverty are two of the world’s most pressing issues. Our collaboration with SC Johnson enables us to make great strides in tackling both challenges,’ says David Katz, founder of Plastic Bank. ‘We must understand that our milestone is just the dust of the massive amount of plastic left in the environment. We all need to take part in building a world where no material is wasted and no human is wasteful. It is only then that we succeed.’