Impact
You can't manage what you can't measure
Visible plastic pollution on land is rarely denied, but it is more often than not undocumented. Nobody can say with confidence how much visible microplastic is lying in nature, how fast it arrives, or whether last year's cleanup made a difference. Without that, every decision is a guess.
Our work starts one step before the cleanup itself: turning plastic polluted areas into a dataset. Once its measured and located, it can be prioritised, budgeted, regulated and measured again.
Why measurable pollution matters for biodiversity
Volunteers and beach crews cannot keep up. A single storm can deposit tens of thousands of plastic pellets along a few kilometres of coast, and hand-picking them is slow, expensive and impossible to scale to an entire coastline.
The mechanical alternatives are devastating towards the sustainability and ecology of the surrounding environment. Sure, sifting machines pull plastic out of the sand, but they also remove shells, seaweed, seeds, insect life, and they disturb the ecological systems of nature, thus killing biodiversity.
Detection changes the trade-off. When software knows exactly where the plastic is and what it is, cleanup can be targeted, resulting in more plastic removed per hour, fewer resources spent, and far less collateral damage to fragile habitats, thus putting biodiversity first.
Aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Life below water
Most plastic that ends up in the ocean starts on land. By mapping visible microplastics on beaches, dunes and industrial sites, we make it possible to quickly and efficiently remove them, and stop them from harming the environment.
Life on land
Coastal grasslands and dunes are fragile ecosystems. By detecting even the smallest pieces of visible microplastics, it is possible to map them, and target cleanup only where it is needed. This means that we can remove only what does not belong in nature, while protecting biodiversity and everything that does belong in nature.
Partnerships for the goals
Numbers travel further than good intentions. We share comparable pollution data with municipalities, authorities and private partners so progress can be tracked across borders and budgets.
