Oceans Series

We live on a blue planet, surrounded by oceans. But how much do we really know about what goes on in our oceans? Where does all the plastic come from, and how do we stop it from getting in there? What does piracy, money laundering, and illegal dumping do to our oceans and our societies? And how exactly can the oceans help feed the ten billion people living on this planet?

In this episode, we set the stage for our Oceans series – our most ambitious one yet. We tell you where we’re headed, how to use this series, the questions we’ll be asking, and all the fun things we have planned. With this, you’ll be all set to start the adventure with us.

• OECD INSIGHTS The Trillion Dollar Ocean | Article |
• Business Insider The economic output by the world’s oceans is worth $2.5 trillion a year | Article |
• OECD The Ocean Economy in 2030 | Report |
• Marine Conservation Institute | Website |
• Scripps Institution of Oceanography | Website |

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The story of ocean plastic, at least the one we talk about now, began 20 years ago. Before then, nobody was making noise about how our oceans were filling up with with this everlasting nuisance. One man changed this when he went onstage at – and showed the world what damage we were causing.

In this episode, we talk to the man himself, captain Charles Moore. And we ask: just how urgent is ocean plastic pollution? Is it as important as climate change?

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One main reason cleaning up the ocean is not going to work: so many of us underestimate the wrath of the sea. The many technical challenges are so much bigger than we realise, and while we all desperately wish the magic-bullet solutions will work…the cold hard facts tell a different story.

That’s what oceanographer Kim Martini tells us in this episode. She’s one of the only people to do a scientific peer review of the Ocean Cleanup Project’s feasibility study. The results are very interesting. The main questions we ask her: what exactly are the challenges we’re facing? And is there any hope for cleaning up the ocean, or will we have to live with this plastic soup forever?

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Millions of tonnes of plastic enter our ocean every year. If we’re going to stop this flood, we need to know where the leak is. Is the in countries where huge amounts of plastic enters the sea? Would that explain how a plastic wrapper dropped in a recycling bin in England ended up on a Chinese beach thousands of kilometres away? No, it is more complicated than that – time to cast a wider net.

We’re not the only ones looking for answers. In this episode, we share the story of Martin Bourque: the man who put a GPS tracker into his plastic bale in California, and found out the truth about where his plastic was going.

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Martin Bourque was suspicious about where the plastic from his recycling facility in California was going. He put a tracking device into a plastic bale and tracked it all the way across the world to a rural recycling facility in China. What did he find there? This is part two of Martin’s story, and it’s an eye-opener.

This episode brings up an important point: this is not just an American story – we share some facts from Europe that show we’re in this too. There is way too much plastic being produced that nobody wants. We’re paying to get rid of it, and the price is way too high.

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China doesn’t want our plastic waste anymore. This sent a shockwave throughout the plastic recycling industry and left all of us wondering: where do we go from here? Will new markets open up, or will we (finally) have to deal with our own problems at home? Will the EU Plastic Strategy save us?

In this episode, we discuss the current thinking and upcoming trends on this issue. It’s challenging. We also debrief on the recent live Talk Show in Brussels about European plastics, global markets & China, and set the stage for our next episode where we dive even deeper.

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The Commission has just released the first ever Europe wide strategy on plastic. This text lays out the vision for tackling plastic pollution, with its main aims to reduce disposable plastic use, limit micro-plastic use, and make manufacturing packaging fully recyclable by 2030. Big news. But is it bold and ambitious, or more politics as usual?

In this episode, we review and discuss the content of this strategy together with Director of Rethink Plastic, Delphine Lévi Alvarés. Big topics on the table include: the absence of clear target for recyclable packaging, possible upcoming legislation on single-use plastics, how to prevent unintentional microplastics, possible oxoplastics ban, and the plastic tax surprise.

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