November 22nd marked Oceans of Plastic 2023 - a global campaign and awareness initiative aimed at addressing the pressing issue of plastic pollution in our oceans, focusing on the detrimental impact of plastic pollution on marine life, ecosystems, and human health. It encourages individuals, communities, and organizations to take responsibility for reducing plastic waste and protecting our oceans.
Here, we take a fresh look at Plastic Odyssey and its three-year global mission across three continents to discover, champion and share solutions to help overcome the plastic waste crisis – both on land and in our seas.
It is a project that has been supported by Lubmarine - as an official lubrication solutions supplier since 2021 – before Plastic Odyssey set sail from Marseille in October 2022, playing a vital role in the team’s global journey by combining our high-performance lubricants along with our very latest suite of ground-breaking global digital monitoring services.
One Year into a Three-Year Expedition
Since it set sail, Plastic Odyssey has been stopped off at different destinations in Africa including Beirut, Egypt and Senegal before heading across the Atlantic to South America, where it is currently moored in Ecuador having visited Brazil, Columbia, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica to name a few.
In each region where the Plastic Odyssey expedition stops the team not only raises awareness about the problems associated with sea borne plastics through a number of educational workshops and programmes but also meets the men and women in each destination who are taking different paths to live with less plastic and turn the plastics they are collecting into useable products.
Across Africa and South America on their journey so far, the Plastic Odyssey team has seen a number of inspiring projects including:
- The launch of an application in Beirut to organize waste collection
- A company transforming plastic waste into paving stones in Guinea
- Plastic waste transformed into colourful teapots in Senegal
- A machine that turns plastic waste into energy in South Africa
- A project to create biodegradable containers from yagua palm leaves and another that creates lamps from Water Hyacinths in the Dominican Republic
- Bowls and glasses made from the Totuma fruit in Columbia
At each stopover, Plastic Odyssey welcomes aboard several local recycling entrepreneurs to help develop concrete and effective solutions to fight against plastic pollution, through its on-board Laboratory program which is part of the project’s “Clean Up The Past” strategy aiming to develop economically viable local businesses to transform existing plastic waste into resources.
The team also provides and runs free educational resources and workshops for schools and students in the locations it calls at, to help raise awareness about the importance of reducing plastic waste in the oceans.
At Lubmarine we find it fascinating to watch Plastic Odyssey’s journey across two continents unfold, highlighting the ingenuity, innovation and skills of people and communities in not only tackling the problem of plastic waste but turning it into an array of alternative products.
The work that Plastic Odyssey and its team are doing in raising awareness about the problems of sea borne plastics wherever it stops, educating youngsters in those destinations and supporting communities to tackle and reduce plastic waste is truly making a difference and we are proud to be supporting them.
The project is clearly reliant on Plastic Odyssey reaching its multiple destinations around the world, so Lubmarine is delighted to not only be supplying the team with its marine lubricants but also, through LubInsight neo providing the crew and wider support team with invaluable sampling, testing and monitoring services and data. We are looking forward to seeing the next leg of their journey as they venture across the Pacific Ocean.
To follow Plastic Odyssey’s journey for yourself visit: https://plasticodyssey.org/en/