Common Seas: the plastic problem
ON a mission to tackle the staggering amount of plastic in our oceans, Sophia Kavgalaki from Common Seas explains how this social enterprise is having a positive impact
What is Common Seas?
Common Seas is a social enterprise that partners with governments and businesses to design, deliver and demonstrate scalable solutions that tackle the source of the plastic problem. Our approach is tried and tested, with success stories from around the world.
Where did the idea for Common Seas come from?
Our founder, Jo Royle, created Common Seas after two key experiences. Sailing to South Georgia, one of the world’s most remote islands, Jo saw the impact of plastic pollution first-hand. In among the natural treasures on the beach, were brightly coloured pieces of plastic waste. To raise awareness of the issue, Jo built Plastiki (pictured right), a 60-foot raft made from reclaimed plastic bottles. With an intrepid crew, she skippered Plastiki across the Pacific to raise awareness of the issue, attracting global media attention, and spent the next decade turning awareness into action, with a deep focus on technology and policy. Travelling on supply ships between islands, Jo led The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Global Ocean Legacy campaign to secure the UK Government’s commitment to delivering the Blue Belt of marine protected areas in Overseas Territories.
They now cover more than 1.6 million square miles of ocean. Working with enforcement and technology specialists the team developed a big data platform, using satellite applications, to monitor remote and protected oceans. Jo also supported Prince Charles’s International Sustainability Unit to deliver the UK Plastic Pact, comprising more than 100 major businesses pledging to eradicate single-use plastics. All of this encouraged Jo to form Common Seas to design and deliver scalable solutions that address the source of this growing plastic problem.
What is your impact?
Our impact is twofold:
Our programmes support decisions makers in governments and businesses to develop policies and plans to significantly reduce their plastic pollution.
At the same time, our demonstration projects develop the principles in those policies in real-world situations. For example, on the island of Paros in Greece, a water refill programme has prevented the use (and disposal) of over 300,000 plastic bottles.
And how do you have that impact?
We have an impact in three areas. In business, our work is enabled by our digital solution, PlasTICK. PlasTICK is a digital platform specifically developed for the hospitality industry, designed to measure and report on single-use plastics (SUP) – in line with the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative (GTPI) measurement methodology – and enable hospitality businesses to reduce their SUP items through circular economy solutions. By setting a baseline, setting targets and measuring reduction, businesses can see with real data the direct impact of reduction solutions on their SUP consumption. You can find out more at PlasTICK. With governments, our work is enabled by Plastic Drawdown, a tool we developed in consultation with 24 governments around the world, and has been deployed in Maldives, Grenada, Barbados, The Gambia, and Indonesia. Plastic Drawdown models a country’s plastic emissions and analyses the potential impact of reduction policies. Our policy team is on hand to advise partners on policy design and implementation. And lastly, our demonstration projects show how policies can be applied in the real world. Their impact is direct, reducing plastic pollution at the source. You can find out more about them on our website and in the community example below.
What would you like to see change/improve in your area?
The United National is currently negotiating a Global Treaty on Plastic Pollution. We need a robust treaty that will protect our health, and secure a global cap on plastics production, with mandatory national action plans for reducing plastic pollution.
Can you give an example of how you've helped a community?
In Indonesia, our ‘Bumbi’ reusable diapers programme has already prevented over 300,000 single-use plastic diapers, many of which would have been disposed of in the Brantas river, contributing to the 40,000 tonnes of plastic waste the river washes into the ocean each year.
What's nest for Common Seas?
Over the next year, we are planning to expand our impact, developing National Action Plans on plastic reduction for a further five nations, and helping governments to build capacity on plastics policies. We are also considering further demonstration projects to show how key policies can deliver the change that is so sorely needed.
Plastic Pains
Common Seas exists to quickly and significantly reduce the amount of plastic produced and stop it polluting our rivers and seas.
Find out more here.
This is a feature from Issue 20 of Charitable Traveller.
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