The Pacific Plasticity forum was an opportunity to tackle plastic waste and pollution in a more constructive way.

UN Climate Champion and Founder of the Ocean Recovery Alliance, Douglas Woodring highlighted that the forum allowed real practical solutions from around the world to be discussed and to see how it could be replicated in smaller countries.

With delegates from around the Pacific and from the corporate sector, the one day event also discussed some ground breaking and innovative technology that is reshaping how we deal with plastic waste.

Managing Director from the plastics circle, Trish Hyde talked about one such example that is creating quite the momentum for sustainable development.

“So one of the best examples that I can give is that we have a gentleman from Costa Rica who has the technology to use dirty plastic which is all kinds of mixed plastic and extrude that into an aggregate for concrete. Now concrete needs that aggregate to form and this is actually lighter weight than traditional aggregate, so it uses up the plastic that’s there and it can be any type and has a benefit to the building industry.”

It’s estimated that some 8 million tonnes of plastic waste enters our oceans annually, causing an estimated $27 Billion worth of ecosystem damage.

The forum on Plasticity will be held next in Amsterdam in June, with plans to bring it back to the Pacific to in the pipeline.