Prevented Ocean Plastic’s new mission: 25 by 2025

Iranpolymer/ Baspar  Among the commitments and statements made last week on World Oceans Day, one in particular stood out. Bantam Materials UK, the supplier of Prevented Ocean Plastic in Europe, announced a particularly ambitious new mission, namely the opening of 25 new plastic waste collection centres around the world  by the year 2025.
The centres will be opened in regions that have historically lacked recycling infrastructure to deal with their plastic waste, including Southeast Asia, South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Mediterranean. Twenty centres will be high-capacity collection centres capable of processing 100 tonnes of discarded plastic waste per month, and five will be bigger ‘aggregation centres’ able to process up to 500 tonnes per month. By 2025, Prevented Ocean Plastic expects to be collecting 54,000 tonnes of plastic waste per year across the 25 new centres.
Over half of the collection centres will be new builds, supported by various partners including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), who are working directly with Prevented Ocean Plastic Southeast Asia. The other centres will be expansions of existing sites alongside local partners.
“Using our repeatable Prevented Ocean Plastic model, there is no limit to what we can achieve. In the future we would love 25 to become 50, and 50 to become 100 centres, addressing ocean plastic pollution at scale as we continue to grow,” said Raffi Schieir, director of Bantam Materials UK.

The Prevented Ocean Plastic programme is a global recycling initiative which sees discarded plastic bottles being picked up by plastic collectors from areas at risk of ocean plastic pollution, who take them to local collection centres for payment. At these centres, the bottles are sorted and pressed for transport to plastic recycling factories, where the plastic is washed, sanitised and processed into raw material flakes or pellets, all according to European and North American quality standards.

Each of the new centres will therefore supply the collected material to a recycler complying with the Prevented Ocean Plastic Standards developed in accordance with the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) base code, follow the Code of Good Practice developed by ISEAL, and Bantam Materials’ Good Manufacturing Practices and best-in-class traceability process.
The recycled plastic, called Prevented Ocean Plastic, is fully certified and used by supermarkets and brands around the world. It meets regulatory health and safety standards, is traceable back to source and can be identified on packaging through its distinctive triangular blue logo.

The announcement of the new 25 by 2025 mission was accompanied by the news that Prevented Ocean Plastic had also celebrated the grand opening of the first new collection centre, in Semarang, Indonesia, in a partnership between USAID and Prevented Ocean Plastic Southeast Asia.

Indonesia currently ranks as the number two source for ocean plastic pollution. The new centre will process 500 tonnes per month, helping to address the growing volumes of waste in Semarang, one of the largest cities in Java, Indonesia, and expand recycling in the region, while at the same time creating 40 direct jobs.
“At a time when there’s a lot of negative talk about the future of the planet, it’s good to be doing something that has an immediate, positive impact on people and their local communities,” said Schieir. “By choosing recycled and looking for the Prevented Ocean Plastic logo, we can all support responsible sourcing through these tangible, brick-and-mortar builds.”
USAID’s lead ocean plastics and urban advisor Clare Romanik said USAID was proud to partner with Prevented Ocean Plastic Southeast Asia.
“This partnership demonstrates the power of blended finance as a model to scale solutions to the plastic crisis.”

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