A consortium of entrepreneurs, innovators, investors, CEOs, and environmental advocates have been invited to gather for an international forum on ocean plastics in Klosters, Switzerland this week. The conference, appropriately titled this year, Oceans SOS, has attracted an impressive range of committed stakeholders and change-makers, who are interested in solving a specific challenge that is dramatically affecting many parts of the world. By creating a new and progressive platform that is focused beyond the awareness of a problem, on the solutions that are possible, the Klosters Forum committee encourages its participants to collaborate and share their insights, ideas, and expertise around problem-plastics.
Caleb Rick, CEO of EcoGlobal, a social enterprise company based in Chelsea, Vermont, is one of the attendees who has been invited to participate in the dynamic discussions and workshops that will take place over the course of the next few days. “I look forward to taking part in networking and collaboration around global diversion and reuse of plastics with businesses, governments and NGO partners who share similar approaches to the environmental stewardship of materials,” said Rick, before he departed for Switzerland. “I hope to introduce the value we are able to create for diverted materials, as well as how we are strategically developing our business to have a focus on capturing and recapturing material, having a responsibility for that material and the production and movement of it.”
Rick and his EcoGlobal leadership team have become very familiar in recent years, with the size and scale of the plastics consumption problem in North America, and how there are few viable options to recycle, reuse or repurpose certain types of single-use plastics, particularly if those plastics have not been properly cleaned after use, and especially now, since China’s recent import ban on post-consumer content. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE), used to make shopping bags, six-pack rings, agricultural film and dry cleaner bags, is one type of material EcoGlobal is working to divert from the landfills and oceans. Once this material has been captured, they are then able to leverage Ekopolimer technology to convert this plastic waste into durable, multipurpose tools called Ekomats. The appeal of Ekopolimer products is the environmental impact they could make on that greater scale, over the long-term, and how they can also be used in a variety of applications, across various industry sectors.
At Klosters this week, Rick will be joined by one of EcoGlobal’s collaborative partners, Samanta Skrivere. Skrivere is the CEO and Founder of The Ministry of Waste, a nonprofit organization operating out of Europe and Southeast Asia, that is also seeking solutions for ocean plastics by empowering and incentivizing local beach communities and waste pickers in Asia, while also collaborating with innovative manufacturers and recyclers to turn any beach waste into new products, and partnering with corporations and brands who care about the ocean and strive to reinvent their products and packaging with recycled beach plastics.
After Klosters, Rick plans to gather the EcoGlobal leadership team in Middlebury, Vermont, to share what he was able to take away from this significant global event and to prepare for the installation of a new Ekomat prototype into the Parks and Recreation space.
To learn about EcoGlobal, you can visit their website: www.ekomats.com
To learn more about The Ministry of Waste: https://www.ministryofwaste.org