Every minute, the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic is dumped into our ocean, and every year, 11 million metric tons of plastic enter our marine environments—enough to circle the Earth four times.

Plastic kills marine life, destroys sensitive ocean ecosystems, and pollutes food sources that support the livelihoods of more than 3 billion people around the world.

Plastic is everywhere in modern society. Scientists are even finding microplastics in human blood and other body systems. But it doesn't have to be that way.

What is Plastic Free July?

Started in 2011 in Australia, Plastic Free July is an annual global movement that encourages global citizens, communities, and businesses to reduce their plastic footprint and choose more planet-friendly alternatives to conventional plastic.

The movement has inspired over 100 million participants in 190 countries to make small, thoughtful changes regarding plastic that magnify into an even greater impact worldwide.

Through Plastic Free July, global participants have reduced 2.1 billion tonnes of waste and recycling worldwide, including 300 million kgs of plastic consumption.

What is SOA doing about plastic pollution?

At Sustainable Ocean Alliance, we champion ocean-based solutions that remove these harmful pollutants clouding our ocean—or avoid their use altogether.

RELATED | SOA'S 266 OCEAN SOLUTIONS

To date, SOA's impact in plastic pollution has supported:

Discover eight innovators in SOA's Ecopreneur Network that are building a world without plastic pollution.

8 Ecopreneurs Solving the Plastic Pollution Crisis

LOLIWARE | 2018 1st Cohort

Founded by: Sea F. Briganti 

Plastic is over, seaweed is the future. LOLIWARE is a leading seaweed-based, climate tech company working to advance the planet towards a plastic-free, de-carbonized future with products that are Designed to Disappear.

By using seaweed’s regenerative properties—along with its climate change mitigation and adaptation potential—LOLIWARE aims to make single-use plastic obsolete once and for all.

Dispatch Goods | 2019 2nd Cohort

Founded by: Lindsey Hoell, Maia Tekle

Dispatch Goods is a women-founded reverse logistics company building the infrastructure for circular packaging and making it easier for companies to deliver food in reusable packaging.

Dispatch Goods enables restaurants, grocery stores, and direct-to-consumer brands to offer their customers food in reusable packaging, again and again—without ending up in landfills.

rePurpose Global | 2019 2nd Cohort

Founded by: Peter Wang Hjemdahl, Svanika Balasubramanian, Aditya Siroya

rePurpose Global is the world's leading Plastic Action Platform, dedicated to reducing waste, reviving lives, and restoring nature's balance by eliminating millions of pounds of plastic waste every year and improving the lives of 9,500+ marginalized waste workers and community members worldwide.

Their one-stop solution empowers people, communities, and companies to reduce their plastic footprint and finance innovators solving the plastic crisis.

Sway | 2021 5th Cohort

Founded by: Julia Marsh, Matt Mayes

Imagine a fully regenerative future. Sway combats plastic pollution and its devastating effects by replacing single-use plastics with packaging made from seaweed.

Sway's technology drops into traditional plastic infrastructure, while simultaneously replenishing ocean health, sequestering carbon, promoting benevolent materials, and ultimately creating a more inclusive climate movement.

Cruz Foam | 2019 2nd Cohort

Founded by: John Felts, Marco Rolandi

Cruz Foam is a circular materials company that produces regenerative, earth-digestible protective packaging foam and other eco-friendly solutions from natural materials like chitin from shellfish shells and fibers from agricultural waste.

By replacing conventional polystyrene with Cruz Foam's innovative packaging alternatives, consumers are mitigating 17,000 tons of CO2 each year.

B'ZEOS | 2021 4th Cohort

Founded by: Adriana Kyvik, Guy Maurice

B'ZEOS is a green tech company offering sustainable, home-compostable, and bio-digestible packaging solutions made from seaweed extracts to combat plastic pollution.

Their seaweed-packaging pellets can be transformed into a variety of final products, making them compatible with conventional machinery without toxic chemicals and pollutants.

Novoloop | 2019 2nd Cohort

Founded by: Miranda Wang, Jeanny Yao

Novoloop is giving plastic trash new life by transforming packaging waste into high-performance materials used in shoes, automotives, homes, and more.

Their upcycled materials perform like those made from virgin plastic and contain up to 50% post-consumer recycled content and reduce carbon emissions by up to 45%.

PlanetCare | 2020 3rd Cohort

Founded by: Mojca Zupan

PlanetCare has designed the only purpose-built microfiber washing machine filter to capture over 90% of the fibers of all size ranges—before they leave drain pumps. Using a PlanetCare filter mitigates about one bags-worth of microfibers into the ocean every week.

As part of a closed-loop system, cartridges are collected after use and reused/recycled.

Do you have a solution to plastic pollution?

Join SOA's growing community of plastic pollution solutionists: apply to the Ecopreneur Network!

Applications are due August 1, 2023. Learn more and apply here.