The nonprofit has opened a chain of stores with plastic waste as the currency.

Waste360 Staff, Staff

March 6, 2018

1 Min Read
The Plastic Bank Turns Plastic Waste into Money for the Poor

Nonprofit organization The Plastic Bank is working to reduce the amount of plastic waste in the world while also helping to alleviate poverty. The nonprofit has created stores where those in poverty can exchange plastic waste for goods they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford.

The Plastic Bank sells the raw material it collects to companies that then use it to manufacture new products. Launching its first store in Haiti in 2015, The Plastic Bank has since expanded to the Philippines and hopes to launch in Ethiopia and India this year.

Public Radio International has more information:

“We have built out the largest chain of stores in the world for the ultra-poor, where everything in the store is available to be purchased using plastic garbage,” says The Plastic Bank’s founder, David Katz. “Most proudly, we offer school tuition, medical insurance, Wi-Fi, power, sustainable cooking fuel, high-efficiency stoves and everything else the world needs and can't afford.”

While many activists and organizations are working to clean up the plastic already in the oceans, Katz’s plan is to stop plastic from getting into the ocean in the first place.

“Of the plastic that is entering the ocean, it is not surprising that it comes from those countries with extreme poverty,” Katz says. “If you don't have power or food for your children, recycling is not even in the realm of possibility. There is no garbage truck that comes by and picks up your waste. What you have is a stream, a river, a canal and the streets. Most countries have two seasons — the dry season, where everything goes into the river bed and the rainy season, when it's all washed out to sea.”

Read the full story here.

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