To celebrate World Oceans Day 2022 new exciting and diverse solutions have been added to the SHiFT Platform, our custom-built digital tool designed to help individuals and businesses find their role in solving ocean plastic pollution.
The SHiFT Platform is free for all and users can select how, in what aspect of life and where they want to create a shift from sea to source. Users can navigate hundreds of impactful solutions finding the ones that are best for them to action. From small individual changes to large global projects, solution examples range from high-tech to a return to basics.
Each solution includes facts to help users better understand the problem itself, as well as the benefits and challenges of implementing those solutions and the impact they can make in doing so. Users can also easily share their actions across social media channels to inspire others to join them in making a difference in their own lives, communities, businesses and wider world. Users can generate solutions in under a minute, but those looking to explore hundreds of options can have fun experimenting with different filter combinations.
New solutions added include:
- For the budding gardener …. use ocean-plastic plant pots made from rope, fishing net and plastic collected from beach cleanups to grow house and garden plants. Up to half a billion plastic plant pots are ending up in landfill or incineration plants every year in the UK.#
- For the citizen scientist … build a microplastics trawl as a really valuable way to engage and educate people in how prolific microplastics are in our local waters. There are 5.25 trillion pieces of ocean plastic debris. Of that mass, 269,000 tons float on the surface.
- For motor-heads … replace plastic container car screenwash with tabs and just add water to create your own screenwash. UK motorists consume around 100 million plastic tubs of screenwash each year.
- For the adventurer … organise a water-based cleanup by SUP, kayak or canoe with a comprehensive how-to guide. It is estimated that more than 1000 rivers account for 80% of global annual plastic waste emissions to the ocean.
- For smart logistics planners … swap to specialist Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) tracking software by SAP to control and reduce impacts to the downstream waste system and make design changes to eliminate waste. In 2019, packaging waste generated was estimated at 178.1 kg per inhabitant in the EU.
Our SHiFT Platform was developed in 2020 in partnership with global technology leader SAP as a way to scale up support for individuals and businesses wanting to tackle plastic pollution around the world. Since its launch, it’s been used in 146 countries and new solutions are added all the time from simple consumer choices to more complex industry action.
Plastic pollution doesn’t know political or cultural borders. We share one planet and global problems transcend all boundaries, which means the solutions need to as well. We don’t need everyone to do everything, but we need everyone to do something. It’s time to find your role. It’s time to act.
