The Surprising Solution to Ocean Plastic

This talk was presented at a TED Institute event given in partnership with IBM. TED editors featured it among our selections on the home page. Read more about the TED Institute.

Can we solve the problem of ocean plastic pollution and end extreme poverty at the same time? That’s the ambitious goal of The Plastic Bank: a worldwide chain of stores where everything from school tuition to cooking fuel and more is available for purchase in exchange for plastic garbage — which is then sorted, shredded and sold to brands who reuse “social plastic” in their products.

Join David Katz to learn more about this step towards closing the loop in the circular economy. “Preventing ocean plastic could be humanity’s richest opportunity,” Katz says.

David Katz is founder and CEO of The Plastic Bank, the world’s only organization to monetize plastic waste and provide an opportunity for the world’s disadvantaged to collect and trade plastic waste as a currency.

More about ocean plastic:

Plastic degrading in the oceans release chemicals into the water

Update: Remember the Young Man With a Plan to Rid Oceans of Plastic?

The Curse of Plastic Ocean Waste Now Part of the Cure

Microplastics in our mussels: the sea is feeding human garbage back to us