Blockchain and the world’s growing plastic problem

“People are being asked to marque changes to assistance mitigate clime change, but I can’t propulsion a CO2 molecule from the aerial and amusement it to you."

Everything makes its mode to the sea, and nary much truthful than plastics. There are present 5 floating integrative islands successful antithetic oceans crossed the world, with the largest land adjacent having a name, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is 3 times the size of France. Lying betwixt California and Hawaii, it is the world’s biggest water discarded repository, with 1.8 cardinal pieces of floating integrative that termination thousands of marine animals each year.

Of course, we present cognize that 35% of discarded originates from affluent countries and 50% of this discarded is exported to processing countries. At the aforesaid time, 70% of processing countries mismanage their ain discarded and deficiency the infrastructure to cod and recycle waste. Finally, 90% of each integrative discarded enters the oceans done rivers, mostly done a fewer 100 rivers successful Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Many projects person sprung up looking to tackle the occupation of integrative contamination astatine the extremity of its journey. On Bitcoin Beach successful El Salvador, 1 of the projects funded by Bitcoin philanthropists is the postulation of plastics successful the stream earlier they scope the sea. 

Plastiks.io is different task that addresses the extremity games, identifying credible recycling and cleanup projects typically successful processing countries that are funded by concern oregon philanthropic individuals successful the west.

Canada-based Plastic Bank besides works to incentivize stewards to cod integrative from the oceans and, to date, claims that its Ocean Stewards person stopped much than 64 cardinal kilograms of integrative from entering the ocean.

In 2014 successful Malaysia, students from Nottingham University, past led by a co-founder of DeFi app Alluo, Remi Tuyaerts, were progressive successful a fig of societal endeavor businesses, including 1 that uses achromatic worker flies to devour discarded and different that converts integrative into beanbags employing the homeless. These businesses are inactive thriving.

In 2019, Manila Bay Beach successful the Philippines was filled with truthful overmuch integrative discarded it earned the nickname “rubbish beach.” Then, wrong a mates of months, it was reclaimed successful a large cleanup. Initially, 5,000 volunteers removed implicit 45 tons of garbage. Prior to the onslaught successful 2018, Bounties Network paid fishermen to cod trash and rewarded them with tokens, and the continued payments helped money fishermen’s precarious livelihoods and support the formation clean.

“Bounties Network got a concern with a section integer outgo provider, Coins.ph, to marque definite radical could speech the Ethereum into fiat,” says Simona Pop, co-founder of Bounties Network.

Mark Beylin, past CEO of Bounties Network, documents the interaction of the cleanup connected the section supporters:

“One of the astir absorbing dynamics we saw passim the play was the mode successful which radical shifted from being extrinsically motivated to intrinsically. Many who attended the lawsuit came retired simply due to the fact that they saw the accidental to gain supplemental income. However, arsenic we engaged with participants connected an idiosyncratic basis, we learned astir the consciousness of idiosyncratic accomplishment they felt successful collectively improving their environment.” 

However, these projects are each trying to tackle the consequences of littering and its interaction connected processing countries. What astir the projects tackling the issues person to the source? 

A gyration successful geography

In 2008, Seán Lynch, laminitis of OpenLitterMap and LitterCoin successful Cork, Ireland, discovered GIS, the mapping bundle for real-world information specified arsenic what governments usage to representation roads oregon pipelines and — arsenic a gamer — saw that it was precise akin to galore of the maps successful his games. He past wondered whether helium could usage this instrumentality to representation real-world information into a game. The adjacent question was the use.

“Where I lived successful Cork, I had to walk a litter blackspot connected my mode to college. This was successful 2008, and I wondered if I could usage GIS to crippled this amerciable dump onto a representation and commencement a speech locally. I knew that portion litter mostly is simply a planetary problem, if you could place section issues, past you mightiness make involvement and, from that, make action.”

This was successful 2012, and Lynch was puzzling distant astir however to seizure the information erstwhile the cleanable instrumentality successful smartphones arrived.

“I was traveling and moving arsenic a scuba diver successful Thailand, which I adored. I had a truly adjacent idiosyncratic transportation with the ocean. Other divers and backpackers similar myself picked up a batch of litter from the beaches each day. But it was lone with the advent of societal media that we realized however severely the satellite was polluted,” helium says

“One day, I retrieve seeing idiosyncratic with an iPhone connected the beach, and they were utilizing it to way their location, and this was my adjacent ‘aha’ moment: Why not usage this progressively communal mobile instrumentality to instrumentality photographs and papers the litter?”

Inspired by this revelation, Lynch returned to his autochthonal Cork to survey for a master’s successful GIS to afloat recognize however to usage exertion to lick the contamination problem. He besides realized that the specified presumption of the problem, nevertheless huge, would not beryllium a capable motivator — it had to beryllium much immediate.

Lynch evolved his reasoning into a national subject level wherever information tin beryllium crowdsourced connected a hyper-local basis:

“People are being asked to marque changes to assistance mitigate clime change, but I can’t propulsion a CO2 molecule from the aerial and amusement it to you. People perceive astir the situation arsenic immoderate far-away spot being polluted, and though it’s true, this attack is disconnected from astir people’s day-to-day reality. But if I tin assistance radical observe litter connected a much section level, similar erstwhile radical zoomed into their location connected Google Maps for the archetypal time, I person your attention.”

The timing successful presumption of the improvement of geography is besides connected Lynch’s side. He explains that the survey of the satellite has gone done respective iterations and paradigm shifts. Up until the 1960s, the survey of geography, and the signifier of teaching it, is mostly a descriptive process. Then, a computational gyration occurred wherever universities started getting entree to computers and governments started putting satellites into space.

“Suddenly we were capable to instrumentality this quantitative accusation astir the satellite and store it connected a computer. The geographers of the satellite realized they could not lone picture however landforms looked but they could really number things specified arsenic the magnitude of rainfall oregon however greenish the writer is. It’s referred to arsenic the quantitative gyration successful the survey of geography.”

In 2014, Lynch started pursuing Bitcoin and peculiarly liked the conception of proof-of-work, wherever miners are rewarded for securing the network. When Ethereum launched a fewer years later, Lynch saw that helium tin make his ain token, which gave him different “aha” moment.

“I had been toying with the thought of utilizing bracelets to reward people, but portion an charismatic idea, it wasn’t practical, truthful the thought of rewarding radical with a token was infinitely much compelling.”

And so, successful 2015, Littercoin was born. In 2022, Lynch got his archetypal backing from Project Catalyst from Cardano. 

“Mind you, Littercoin is not similar different crypto. It won’t beryllium listed connected immoderate exchange, and you won’t beryllium capable to bargain it — it tin lone beryllium earned by downloading the OpenLitterMap app and starting signaling the litter.”

Lynch argues that determination is simply a debased obstruction to earning the token and notes that it volition lone beryllium spendable astatine pre-approved stores, and these stores volition beryllium successful the zero discarded stores successful the clime economy.

“You gain the Littercoin by improving the environment, and you tin walk it successful stores that besides amended the situation — it’s a virtuous circle.”

Since launching the app successful April 2017, determination person been 6,500 users, with caller radical coming connected committee daily. This increasing assemblage has been liable for 500,000 tags and much than 350,000 photographs.

“And if you support the representation open, you tin spot the updates successful real-time. So, if idiosyncratic spots immoderate litter and picks it up anyplace successful the world, you tin spot it update connected the map. We are creating a planetary assemblage moving to escaped the satellite of litter,” Lynch says. 

“We springiness the tools to make the knowledge, and that is simply a precise empowering happening to do.”

To marque the process fun, Lynch has created a planetary #LitterWorldCup with the countries each competing to beryllium the top. Ireland was No. 1, but the Dutch assemblage has since overtaken them. Maybe litter postulation begins astatine location aft all.