We’re told if the economy is growing, and if we keep producing, that’s a good thing. But at what cost? In this podcast, TED speakers go into detail about circular systems that regenerate and re-use what we already have.
Creating a circular economy is essential, one of the speakers David Katz who is an environmentalist and entrepreneur brought the idea to mind the most in my opinion. He brings about the idea that the last thing we need to clean is the ocean, which is confusing to think about because the oceans are crowded with trash, and it is killing wildlife. Katz creates an analogy that helps us understand what he is trying to convey. “If you were to walk into a kitchen, and the sink is overflowing, you have to think fast. You’re going to panic. You’ve got a bucket, a mop. What do you do first? Why don’t we turn off the tap? It would be pointless to mop or get rid of the water if we don’t turn off the sink first. Why aren’t we attempting to do the same for the ocean?
According to Katz in his experiences traveling around the world to continue to areas with extreme poverty, the communities, and the governments that may not even have food for their population certainly have no consideration of garbage collection or recycling. We’re trending to produce over 300 million tons of plastic this year. Reportedly 80 percent of the ocean’s plastic is coming from the countries that are in extreme poverty. To try and combat this problem, David Katz created The Plastic Bank.
The Plastic Bank is the largest chain of stores for the extremely poor. The company allows these communities to gather plastic and they purchase the garbage collected by weight. The Plastic Bank creates an opportunity for these people to pay for the most important things, like school tuition or access to medical care, sustainable cooking, fuel, etc. Everything that the world’s poor need and, quite often, can’t afford, is available now using plastic garbage. Essentially David Katz saw a way to kill two birds with one stone. He has developed a way to prevent more plastic from getting into the ocean and then helping people in need at the same time.
Katz has given these people in need a way to get cash. What is even better is that they transfer it into a digital wallet. A blockchain banking application so that they can remove the middlemen and the corruption. This gives an incentive that ensures that the greatest reward is provided for the mass of material. He has gone to the source of this pollution problem. The idea is getting to the plastic before it even hits the ocean, and then collect it and recycle it.
I love this motive to make the world a better and cleaner planet. It gives opportunities to those in need and provides a material with a value. Showing the communities in poverty the importance of the content creates a motive and overall benefits the people. David Katz has genuinely created a circular economy. The plastic collected, packed recycled and it goes back into society the cycle repeats. If you still haven’t quite grasped the idea think of the plastic as a currency if you’ve got a dollar bill and you go to the store and pay for something with the money. The money is not destroyed. It’s circulated.
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