NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Vancouver-based social enterprise Plastic Bank won the Sustania award at the COP21 Paris climate talks in Paris.  The award is based on 10 top  sustainability solutions and projects from around the world, from which one winner is selected.

The top honours this year went to Canada’s Plastic Bank, an enterprise that allows people to collect plastics and bring it to a Plastic Bank facility where it can be recycled and repurposed, and receive goods and tools in exchanged. Other innovative projects included SunCulture, solar-powered irrigation systems developed in the U.S. and based in Kenya, as well as green bonds financing climate change preparedness in Johannesburg.

Plastic Bank spokesperson Sean Macmillan said the inspiration for the project came the widespread problem of plastic pollution in the marine environment: today, an estimated five trillion pieces of plastic are floating through the world’s oceans, such that certain sections are known as a “plastic soup.”

“The inspiration for The Plastic Bank comes from our desire to keep plastic out of the ocean,” said  Macmillan. “When we really examined the ocean plastic problem, we found that most of that garbage — over 8 million tons per year — originates on the land and is then pushed out to sea from the beaches and waterways.”