Organization Plastic Bank has the goal to eliminate pollution of the ocean by waste using the blockchain technology. Plastic Bank is supported by IBM Technology.
Each year about eight million tons of plastic are dumped into our oceans. Scientists predict that by 2050 there will be more plastic waste in the ocean than fish. Plastic Bank, a social enterprise founded in May 2013, decided to tackle plastic waste in the oceans. They collaborated with IBM and Cognition Foundry to clean the ocean.
David Katz, founder and CEO of The Plastic Bank said:
“At Plastic Bank, we encourage citizens to collect waste and deliver them to our local centers.”
Katz added that in exchange for plastic people are rewarded. As for plastic, Plastic Bank grinds waste and sells it to producers as raw materials for re-use.
According to IBM, the organization initially relied on traditional approaches to accounting and transaction tracking between the organization and the citizens supplying plastics for processing. However, they quickly realized that for such a large scale they needed a “higher-performance IT system”.
Plastic Bank decided to work with IBM’s blockchain technology. Blockchain technology is used to track the recycling process from collection to delivery to other companies for reuse.
Plastic Bank also works with Cognition Foundry to develop a reward system.