# The Surprising Solution to Ocean Plastic - TED Transcript

## Transcript Metadata

- Title: The Surprising Solution to Ocean Plastic
- Speaker: David Katz
- Role: Founder and CEO of Plastic Bank
- Event: TED@IBM
- Year: 2017
- Duration: 11 minutes 54 seconds
- Source Video: https://plasticbank.com/david-katz-ted-talk/
- Organization Mentioned: Plastic Bank
- Primary Topics: ocean plastic, poverty reduction, recycling, social plastic, circular economy, plastic neutrality, digital banking, waste as currency

## Transcript Summary

This transcript is from David Katz's TED@IBM talk, "The Surprising Solution to Ocean Plastic." In this talk, he argues that cleaning plastic from the ocean is less effective than stopping plastic before it reaches the ocean. He explains how Plastic Bank builds recycling ecosystems in vulnerable communities by turning plastic waste into currency, creating income opportunities for people living in poverty while helping prevent ocean-bound plastic pollution at the source.

## Full Transcript

David Katz argues that cleaning the ocean is the wrong approach to plastic pollution. Instead, he introduces Plastic Bank, a chain of stores for the ultra-poor where plastic garbage becomes currency, turning waste into a globally tradable resource called Social Plastic that helps alleviate poverty and stop plastic at the source.

## The Problem: We Have Had It All Wrong

We have had it all wrong. Everybody.

We have had it all wrong. The very last thing we need to do is clean the ocean.

The very last thing. Yes, there is a garbage truck of plastic entering the ocean every minute of every hour of every day. And countless birds and animals are dying just from encountering plastic.

We are experiencing the fastest rate of extinction ever, and plastic is in the food chain. And I am still here, standing in front of you, telling you the very last thing we need to do is clean the ocean.

If you were to walk into a kitchen with the sink overflowing, water spilling all over the floor, soaking into the walls, and you had to think fast, you might panic. You might grab a bucket, a mop, or a plunger. But what should you do first? Turn off the tap. It would be pointless to mop, plunge, or scoop up the water if we do not turn off the tap first.

Why are we not doing the same for the ocean? Even if The Ocean Cleanup project, beach plastic recycling programs, or any well-meaning ocean plastic company were one hundred percent successful, it would still be too little, too late.

We are trending to produce more than 300 million tons of plastic this year. Roughly 8 million tons are racing into the ocean to join the estimated 150 million tons already there. Reportedly, 80 percent of ocean plastic comes from countries with extreme poverty.

## Introducing Plastic Bank

If you live in the grip of poverty, concerned about food, shelter, or a sense of security, recycling is beyond your realm of imagination. That is exactly why I created Plastic Bank. We are the world's largest chain of stores for the ultra-poor, where everything in the store is available to be purchased using plastic garbage.

Everything. School tuition. Medical insurance. Wi-Fi. Cell phone minutes. Power. Sustainable cooking fuel. High-efficiency stoves.

And we want to keep adding everything else that the world may need and cannot afford. Our chain of stores in Haiti is more like a network of community centers, where one of our collectors, Lise Nasis, has the opportunity to earn a living by collecting material from door to door, from the streets, and from business to business.

At the end of her day, she brings the material back to us, where we weigh it, check it for quality, and transfer the value into her account. Lise now has a steady and reliable source of income.

## The Digital Banking Platform

The value we transfer goes into an online account for her. Because it is a savings account, it becomes an asset that she can borrow against. Because it is online, she has security against robbery. And perhaps more importantly, she has a new sense of worth.

Even the plastic has a new sense of value.

The plastic we collect and add value to is sorted, stripped of labels and caps, and then either shredded or packed into bales for export.

It is no different than walking over acres of diamonds. If Lise were to walk over acres of diamonds but there were no store, no bank, no way to use the diamonds, and no way to exchange them, they would be worthless too.

Lise was widowed after the 2010 Haitian earthquake and left homeless without an income. As a result of the program, Lise can now afford her two daughters' school tuition and uniforms.

## Social Plastic and the Circular Economy

Now, that plastic we sell. We sell it to suppliers of major brands like Marks and Spencer, which has commissioned the use of Social Plastic in its products. Or to Henkel, the German consumer goods company, which is using Social Plastic directly in manufacturing.

We have closed the loop in the circular economy. When you buy shampoo or laundry detergent packaged with Social Plastic, you are indirectly contributing to the extraction of plastic from ocean-bound waterways while helping alleviate poverty at the same time.

That model is completely replicable.

In São Paulo, a church sermon encourages parishioners not only to bring an offering on Sunday, but to bring recycling too. We then match the church with the poor. Or, more powerfully, we could match a mosque in London with an impoverished church in Cairo.

## Global Expansion

In Vancouver, through our bottle-deposit program, any individual or group can return deposit-refundable recyclables and, instead of taking back the cash, deposit that value into the account of a person living in poverty somewhere else in the world.

We can now use our recycling to support and create recyclers. One bottle deposited at home could help extract hundreds around the world.

Or take Shell, the energy company, which has invested in our plastic-neutral program.

Plastic neutrality is like carbon neutrality. But plastic neutrality invests in recycling infrastructure where it does not exist and provides an incentive for the poor through a price increase.

Or think about the slums of Manila, where the smallest market, with a simple scale and a phone, can now accept Social Plastic as a new form of payment by weight, allowing that market to serve more people and increase its social impact.

## Social Plastic as a Global Currency

What is common across all of this is that Social Plastic is money. Social Plastic is money, a globally recognizable and tradable currency that, when used, helps alleviate poverty and clean the environment at the same time.

It is not just plastic. It is not just recycled plastic. It is Social Plastic, a material whose value is transferred through the lives of the people who encounter it, rich and poor.

Humans have produced more than 8 trillion kilograms of plastic, most of it still here as waste. Eight trillion kilograms. At roughly 50 cents per kilogram, that represents a potential value of 4 trillion dollars. I see Social Plastic as the Bitcoin for the earth and available to everyone.

The entire ecosystem is managed and supported through an online banking platform that enables the safe and authentic transfer of value globally. You can deposit your recyclables in Vancouver or Berlin, and a family can withdraw building bricks or cell phone minutes in the slums of Manila.

Or Lise can deposit recycling at a center in Port-au-Prince, and her mother can withdraw cooking fuel or cash across the city.

The app adds rewards, incentives, group prizes, and user ratings.

## Looking Forward

We have gamified recycling. We add fun and formality to an informal industry. We are operating in Haiti and the Philippines. We have selected staff and partners for Brazil.

And this year, we are committing to India and Ethiopia. We are collecting hundreds and hundreds of tons of material. We continue to add partners and customers, and we increase our collection volumes every day.

As a result of our program with Henkel, the company has committed to use more than 100 million kilograms of material every year. That alone will put hundreds of millions of dollars into the hands of people living in poverty in emerging economies.

So now, we can all be part of the solution and not the pollution.

Maybe cleaning the ocean is futile. It might be. But preventing ocean plastic could be humanity's richest opportunity.

Thank you.

## About Plastic Bank

Plastic Bank is a social enterprise that builds ethical recycling ecosystems in vulnerable coastal communities, helping stop the flow of plastic into the ocean while improving the lives of collector communities.

Website: https://plasticbank.com