Canadian non-profit Ocean Legacy has launched Legacy Plastic, the first plastic pellet made thanks to the exclusive recycling of plastic waste abandoned in seas or collected on beaches.
“We created Legacy Plastic in 2021 and we are excited about the amount of interest it has received from companies that want to incorporate recycled content into their products. This is a huge milestone for the Ocean Legacy Foundation, as the creation of opportunities that strengthen the use of materials collected during cleaning in new products will continue to advance the success of the plastic circular economy,” said Chloé Dubois, co-founder of the organization. “Legacy Plastic contributes to the circular economy of plastics and reduces land and sea pollution. By using it, companies become a part of the solution in the fight against the ocean plastic pollution crisis.”
The new pellet is produced entirely from recycled marine plastic
The special pellet consists of recycled plastic marine equipment: fishing ropes and nets, buoys, floats, and trays but also other waste released by humans in the marine environment, that is recovered through cleaning activities and reworked to ensure long service life.
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“We are creating a program that makes plastic recycling viable and profitable, which provides us with an economically sustainable revenue stream,” added Gil Yaron, Director of Sales and Marketing for Ocean Legacy Foundation. “Legacy Plastic enables companies to achieve their sustainability goals to produce their products using high-quality post-consumer recycled resins that have a relatively lower carbon footprint than virgin plastic production.”
There are essentially three sources of the operation: end-of-life marine equipment previously used in fishing and aquaculture in the Pacific and then recovered by Ocean Legacy; material recovered from the cleaning of the coasts organized by the non-profit and other organizations with which it works on the net; plastic recovered from the ocean.