Plastic waste is expected to grow 50% in the new tourism season and non-profit Keep Sea Blue uses innovative technology to deliver on its mission to keep the Mediterranean Sea plastic-free.
Keep Sea Blue, an independent, international organization based in Athens, chose Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Oracle Blockchain to power its mission to keep the Mediterranean Sea plastic-free, while promoting a circular economy for coastal plastics and ensuring full transparency and traceability across the plastics value chain, from collection to recycling to reuse.
Each year, eight million metric tons of plastics enter the ocean worldwide. The Mediterranean Sea, one of the most vulnerable environments in the world, has not escaped the plastic crisis. An estimated 229,000 tons of plastic leak into the Mediterranean Sea every year, harming terrestrial and marine ecosystems and biodiversity.
Keep Sea Blue collects approximately 150 tons of plastic per month, equivalent to about 5 million plastic bottles. With restrictions lifted and tourism set to grow significantly this year, Keep Sea Blue expects a 50% increase in plastic waste on Mediterranean coasts in 2022.
- Keep Sea Blue works with volunteers, other non-profits, the private sector, and local authorities to collect plastic waste from beaches, including materials such as bottles, nylon, and fishing nets. The collected waste is carefully sorted and processed into Recovered Seaside Plastic, a certified recycled raw material that will be used by manufacturers and brands for making new products or packaging.
- Through the blockchain-enabled platform certified partners register information and trace plastic to its point of origin, down to the specific coastal area where it was collected.
- Businesses using packaging from the recycled material can add the “Recovered Seaside Plastic” badge on their products or packaging, providing their customers with proof of the product’s circular journey and sustainability credentials.
Among Keep Sea Blue’s partners is Klöckner Pentaplast, the global manufacturer of sustainable packaging products, which will use recycled material from coastal plastics collected by Keep Sea Blue, to create fresh food packaging in the UK, Italy, Portugal, Germany, and Turkey.
“The good thing about what we have created is that you can now track and see what is happening with the waste you’ve collected. If a team of volunteers or a local community collects 200 kilos of plastic, they can check where this plastic ends up and how it’s been used to create a new product. And that’s extremely motivating,” says Founder Lefteris Bastakis.
“Advanced technologies are powerful tools in the fight of climate change. Oracle addresses sustainability challenges with solutions that can be easily integrated with any organisation’s core activities. Keep Sea Blue’s blockchain-driven platform is a highly innovative way of technology use and we are very proud to be part of their success. The circular economy model in action will hopefully inspire many more organisations to harness the power of technology to create business success in a sustainable way.” – said Stefanos Dionysopoulos, Country Leader Oracle Greece.
About Keep Sea Blue
Keep Sea Blue is an international, independent organisation committed to keeping the Mediterranean Sea plastic-free while promoting a circular economy for coastal plastics. Its mission is to recover plastic waste from at-risk coastal areas and turn it into Recovered Seaside Plastic – a sustainable alternative to virgin plastic for the creation of new products. Through its certification program and online Blockchain platform powered by Oracle blockchain technology, the Organisation connects Collectors, Recyclers, Manufacturers, and Brands, monitors and certifies the circular journey of plastic, and delivers full transparency and traceability across the plastics value chain.
About Oracle
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