The Ocean Fund Solutions

$1 removes 2.2 lbs of ocean-bound plastic. That is the equivalent of stopping 50 ocean-bound water bottles!

Plastic Fischer has a passionate, dedicated team of professionals with backgrounds in marine engineering, law and experienced field techs with local knowledge. Read their inspiring stories here.

While there is amazing promise with the team, Plastic Fischer is also a newer organization and has not yet been tested over the long term.

“Our mission is to develop cost-efficient and effective low-tech solutions for any given river condition around the world.

Our vision is to clean rivers to save oceans.

We believe in collaboration, trustworthy partnerships and long-lasting impact through end-to-end solutions (pickup to disposal/recycling).”

Plastic Fischer focuses on simplicity and efficiency by avoiding moving parts and using the power of the river whenever possible. The solutions have no frills, but get the job done. The 3L approach uses local, low-cost and low-tech solutions to tackle the problem quickly at scale and involve the local communities which is necessary for long term success.

Removing plastics up-stream is significantly easier and cheaper before it hits the ocean.

Their technology is built within local urban areas from off-the-shelf materials. By avoiding shipping parts from overseas they have high scalability, which ensures quick repair and no unnecessary carbon emissions.

These materials are easily accessible globally which allows this solution to scale along a majority of polluting rivers around the world.

A few recyclables are able to be sold in the local markets. Most of this is PET, glass or aluminum which averages around 3-5% of the ocean-bound waste. The main revenue stream is coming from “Plastic Fischer Credits.” Companies buy PFCs by paying Plastic Fischer per ton collected and processed to compensate for the plastic that they can't reduce within their supply chain.

Plastic Fischer barriers do require ongoing maintenance to remove and process the plastic, which is a condition currently present with all similar technologies.

The Plastic Fischer Credit (PFC) market is evolving at this time. The break-even point depends on the volumes of plastic that are being stopped. If enough companies pre-finance their expenses at a very polluted river, the site can become self-sustaining. Currently the system needs ongoing financing from companies and organizations to remove and process the plastic.

“Reversal” in this case could be defined as plastic being removed, only to end up in a river again, or a river barrier system breaking.

Plastics collected are verified and processed in the most safe manner possible so it will not end up back in the waterways. Plastic Fischer has partnered with Geocycle to create cement that is normally powered by coal-fired power plants, creating a solution that guarantees the plastic cannot physically re-enter waste streams.

With local knowledge of weather and by learning from complications of other boom systems during peak rain events, Plastic Fischer has designed emergency opening mechanisms that can release pressure created during heavy flow of rivers. They are able to open parts of the system itself, so that large volumes of water can pass and the equipment will not break and be washed away.

Plastic Fischer has not disclosed public financial information, which is often standard practice for for-profit enterprises.

See Plastic Fischer's example budget and cost breakdown here.

Plastic Fischer records and verifies all steps from collection to disposal with photos by working with Cleanhub, a platform for tracking and verifying waste collection of ocean bound plastics. Photos, videos and monthly updates of their progress are provided to all donors.

Plastic Fischer has also open-sourced all of their river barrier designs! You can find their designs on how to build a trash boom here.

Monthly data reports with the weight of collected plastic from each site (via CleanHub) and photos will be provided. There will also be videos, stories and interviews occasionally!

Plastic Fischer was founded in April 2019 and began operations in Indonesia in June 2019. They were operational until PF team had to leave the country due to COVID-19 in March 2020. Since January 2021, PF hired 32 full time employees and have deployed 14 systems in India and Indonesia (as of Feb 2022).

An estimated 100 tons of plastic have been stopped from entering the oceans from all current Plastic Fischer operations. The Trashboom in the Citarum River, Indonesia captures 1 ton of plastic per week.

The Citarum Trashboom has been in the water since September 2019 and does not show any signs of failure so far, and has been highly effective at its intended purpose.

The Varuna River trashboom in Varanasi India has been in the water since November, 2019 and has effectively helped capture over 11 tons of plastic in Varanasi at the time of first publishing this report (Feb 2022).

Plastic Fischer “key performance indicators” are 1) tons of plastic collected, 2) people employed full-time.

Plastic Fischer's goal is to protect marine habitats and biodiversity while motivating people to decrease the consumption of plastic products.

“We make sure that everyone we hire is joining the company with similar motivation. We hire similarly motivated people dedicated to honest impact with a primary focus for stopping plastic waste in rivers.”

The big goal is to clean the most polluted rivers and be one of the largest providers for plastic credits worldwide within the next three years. Plastic Fischer aims to collect and process thousands of tons from rivers around the world. This is measured, tracked and verified.

Initially Dollar Donation Club is partnering with Plastic Fischer to protect a section of the Ganges river in Varanasi, India. The goal is to deploy 12 solutions at tributary rivers to effectively protect the main river.

The project costs are estimated to be $100,000, including at least 6 river systems, staff, a Material Recovery Facility (MRF), logistics and disposal/processing.

This will fund the operations for 12 months in Varanasi, and remove 100 tons of ocean-bound plastic.

$1 = 1kg plastic collected and processed (2.2 lbs).

Yes, $100,000 = 100,000 kg of ocean-bound plastics collected, sorted, recycled or processed in the safest manner possible.

Plastic Fischer collects data daily and measures the performance of each system to track the plastic that we stop from entering the oceans. Cleanhub is the verification partner, who collects 59 data points for every 1 ton of plastic removed--including weight, transportation data and even the subtraction of moisture content from removed plastics.

Plastic pollution is a symptom of poor design in packaging and poor waste management. Plastics are not designed for a circular economy and it is estimated that 70-80% of ocean plastics from the land, usually end up being washed into the ocean from rivers. (WData).

Plastic pollution has become such a ubiquitous problem that it has been deemed as dangerous as climate change (BBC).

Plastic Fischer is not solving the root of the plastic pollution problem, but they are solving close to the root by focusing on rivers–which have been identified as a major contributor of ocean plastic.

Currently, recycling and processing of plastics do not allow for a self-sustaining economic model.

The main revenue stream is coming from “Plastic Fischer Credits.” Companies contribute to the environment by paying Plastic Fischer per ton collected and processed to compensate for the plastic that they can't reduce within their supply chain.

This is self-sustaining when companies are engaged in purchasing plastic credits.

Plastic Fischer systems are modular, easy to deploy and retrieve. They build them with the idea that they can be improved or re-deployed elsewhere at any time.

River barriers are not permanent installments, so if better solutions emerge over time, the barriers can be decommissioned.

Plastic Fischer uses the 3L Approach:

Local: Manufacture and operate locally.

Low Tech: Simple, efficient design with no heavy engineering.

Low Cost: Local and low-tech lead to low-cost.

They create everything and operate locally. Plastic Fischer hires local engineers and pickup/sorting staff. They believe that working closely with the community is crucial to creating a lasting impact.

Our vetting has uncovered no negative influences on indigenous populations.

Plastic Fischer's river barriers are designed in such a way that they can be packed up and redeployed to new regions if a river is no longer polluting (that's the goal!).

The river barriers are also made from common materials that themselves can be recycled or repurposed in the future if needed.

So far during their operations, the only unintended negative consequences have been related to regular maintenance and how systems deal with flooding/heavy rainfall.

Plastic Fischer builds the systems to withstand heavy river flow and if there is a break, each boom is attached in a way that it can be recovered and repaired, reducing the possibility of losing parts of the boom into the environment. During the heaviest rains/flooding, the booms are removed from the river for safety.

In the worst case event that massive flooding destroys the system and it is lost, Dollar Donation Club still maintains that the net positive benefit of many months of preventing ocean-bound plastic from reaching the ocean is a net-positive impact.

One trade-off that Plastic Fischer has made has been to opt for manual collection of waste rather than automated collection with machinery.  It’s often difficult to access the waterways that Plastic Fischer works in; in these settings, manual collection (using appropriate tools and safety equipment) is more efficient than automated collection, and is necessary to stop the plastic in waterways to prevent it from reaching larger water bodies (where recovering it is almost impossible).

To ensure staff safety, Plastic Fischer trains their operational staff to minimize their touch points with waste and to use appropriate tools for every type of site. On-site safety supervisors make sure that all risks are minimized before starting to collect waste.

Cleaning the most polluting rivers on the planet, removing plastics and processing them in the most environmentally responsible way possible is a big vision that is critical to the wellbeing of life on earth.

Despite rivers being identified as a major choke point for ocean plastic pollution, there have only been a handful of successful river barrier systems to date, due to a number of challenges inherent to the problem.

The flow of water in rivers--especially during peak rain events--can create challenging conditions for recovering plastics with barriers. Marine traffic, fish migrations and equipment wear and tear in water environments, create challenging conditions.

Plastic Fischer has become a major leader in river plastic removal initiatives. In our vetting, we have identified many additional organizations who are using part or all of the Plastic Fischer open-source designs for their river barriers. Deploying a static structure into a moving river is not as easy as it may initially seem, and Plastic Fischer's system is proven to work.

Additionally, Plastic Fischer has developed 3 discrete river solutions that can address small tributaries and larger ones.

In a WWF paper on plastics and climate change they state,“In our oceans, which provide the largest natural carbon sink for greenhouse gases, plastic leaves a deadly legacy. It directly chokes and smothers a host of marine animals and habitats and can take hundreds of years to break down. As it does, sunlight and heat cause the plastic to release powerful greenhouse gases, leading to an alarming feedback loop. As our climate changes, the planet gets hotter, the plastic breaks down into more methane and ethylene, increasing the rate of climate change, and so perpetuating the cycle” (WWF).