Plastic Disclosure Project from Thornberg & Forester on Vimeo.
Animals Don’t Like Swimming Through Plastic And Neither Do Humans
Courtesy of Lily Vivian Moy, Hong Kong.
The Plastic Disclosure Project (PDP), founded by Douglas Woodring and Erik Floyd in 2010, aims to provide solutions to the growing plastic crisis by allowing companies and businesses to continue their use of plastic, but find a way to go about doing so without burdening the environment.
After putting their heads together, they have come to 8 solutions and are constantly seeking other people like them who either have a solution or know someone who could potentially partner with them and give them new ideas. For instance, one of their partners, Agilyx, is a company that turns difficult-to-recycle plastic into oil through an environmentally friendly system.
Not only does the PDP accept surveys filled out by manufactures, services, and municipalities to help them come up with alternatives to their plastic usage, but they also host international PDP Sports. At these conferences, they address plastic waste issues head on and discuss solutions. They are recognized and supported by other well-known companies and organizations such as the Clinton Global Initiative and the United Nations Environmental Program.
With their world-renowned program, there are a few ways the PDP can help in the pool swimming and open water swimming communities. Their collective knowledge is used to educate young swimmers and encourage them to minimize the use of plastic water bottles at practices and swimming meets and inspire teams to ban plastic as a whole. The PDP can also either directly or indirectly organize fundraisers and events that swimmers could participate in at swim meets or as a separate event to educate themselves on what the PDP does and some of their current projects.
Open water swimmers have and will always be the most affected by plastic, as they are always outside and therefore encounter anything that was thrown into the water. There is no body of water in the world that is unaffected by plastic, so any open water swimmer will have their share of stories about encountering plastic during one of their swims. The PDP can help with this by making the bodies of water that are used for competition, whether it be a pond, lake, or ocean, a key area for clean up crews to work on.
Though the PDP has had great success in the past several years, they are constantly searching for people with similar mindsets who can help them improve their program and reach their goals. After all, they will need as many people as they can get to finally reach a day where all plastic is put to a non-harmful use.
For more information, visit www.plasticdisclosure.org.
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