Company: Bantam Materials UK Ltd. (Prevented Ocean Plastic)
Founder: Raffi Schieir
Website: https://www.preventedoceanplastic.com/
About Bantam Materials UK Ltd. (Prevented Ocean Plastic)
Created and launched by Bantam Materials UK Ltd. in 2019, the Prevented Ocean Plastic programme provides an innovative, scalable, and replicable solution for at-risk coastal communities that lack formal waste management infrastructure and are prone to ocean plastic pollution.
By working with local recyclers and developing new collection centres, we give value to what would otherwise be discarded waste and incentivise the collection of this ocean-bound plastic – elevating and benefiting the industry and local community, while facilitating a just transition at each level of the supply chain. It can then be given a second life as new recycled products (made from rPet, rPP and rHDPE) in order to help companies reach their sustainability targets for 2025, 2030 and beyond.
This is achieved through identifying trustworthy and reliable partners who can help to inform and implement these changes in their specific geographies. We funded our first collection centre in Bali in 2019, and have since worked with various funding partners (including Circulate Capital and USAID, and most recently, Danone AQUA and the Alliance to End Plastic Waste) to develop further infrastructure across the Indonesian islands and expand into new regions and territories.
In November 2024, the programme opened a collection centre in Dar es Salaam, the largest city in the United Republic of Tanzania – as a result of a Circularity Assessment Protocol study which they commissioned from the University of Georgia. The new centre is the first Prevented Ocean Plastic centre in the region (East Africa) and is the first of its scale in Tanzania, which currently lacks adequate waste management to deal with its growing quantities of plastic waste. The centre has been built with the support of Alliance to End Plastic Waste.
It is estimated that 29 kilotonnes of plastic waste enter the ocean from Tanzania each year. The new centre is expected to process 300 tonnes of plastic waste per month (more than 3 kilotonnes per year), making a substantial dent in the quantities of plastic reaching the ocean, where it damages marine ecosystems and wildlife. Critically, it will also help to level up engagement with the informal waste sector in the region by creating reliable income opportunities with dignified working conditions for local collectors. It will also provide 40 direct jobs for local people, at least 50% of which will be women.
In Dar es Salaam, informal waste workers play an important but historically undervalued role in recycling. The centre will facilitate this grassroots collection with elevated practices for recycling of discarded plastic through efficient waste management infrastructure run via responsible sourcing principles. This in turn will divert plastic from being burnt by households, buried or dumped into the open environment into drainage canals, sewers or on the seashore, which data suggests is where 40% of the waste in Dar es Salaam currently ends up. Further recycling and collection centres are planned to be developed in conjunction with local recyclers to create more jobs and address the specific needs of the region.
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