Waste2Wear puts ocean waste clothing on blockchain

Dutch clothing company Waste2Wear has put its clothes made from plastic ocean waste on the blockchain. This way consumers can see where the materials in their clothes come from. This leaves no doubt that all fabrics and textile products are made out of post-consumer plastic waste collected from oceans, and saved from ending up on landfill. Waste2Wear is now showing the clothes at the international textile fair Première Vision.

Waste2Wear announced their plans for tracing the origin of the fabrics this August. The company designs clothes from ocean plastics for some time now, but decided to heed the call from its clients. They wanted to know where the plastics came from, and thus the blockchain implementation was born.

Waste2Wear gets its waste from the coastal areas of a small island near Shanghai. The company works together with the local government, local NGO's and fishermen to collect waste from the ocean. These fishermen lost their jobs because of environmental regulations. They now make money by catching plastics instead of fish. They collect three tons of waste per week! Every step from the process is registered on the blockchain, from collecting the plastic to actually creating a coat.

Ocean waste major problem

Ocean waste is a major problem. The fact that fishermen collect three tons of waste per week, only from that one location near Shanghai, says enough. Waste2Wear is also active in other areas, and collects 30 tons of waste per month. However, according to National Geographic more than 9 million tons of waste flows into the ocean every single year.

Nature isn't only having troubles with our waste, but also with our CO2 emission. The rise of solar power is a good way to abandon coil power plants, and the rise of electric cars benefits the world as well. Blockchain technology can help with the distribution of energy, while energy creators can sell their surplus to neighbors or other companies. Smaller states are already rewarding citizens for being green, and that's certainly the best way to go.