5 Gyres - Understanding Plastic Pollution Through Exploration, Education, and Action

Well I would.  The 5 Gyres team is in Salt Lake City right now at the Summer Outdoor Retailer tradeshow.  Pictured above is a photo of one of our friends from Chico Bag, who, in an effort to tirelessly reduce plastic pollution wherever it hides has now hired a Queens, New York Chico Bag rep. named, 'Juice.' Says Andy Keller, CEO of Chico Bag, "Yeah, well, you know, sometimes you got to hire some local flavor to get local buy-in. I want someone authentic, from the gutter, after all that's where plastic bags end up, in the gutter." The new reps mantra?  "Hey you stupid Jerkfaces, why you killin sea turtles when you carry your malt liquor home? Quit trying to whack the planet hunh there Chief?  Heyyyyyyyyy, am I right or am I right? Bada-Bing." 

(disclaimer- the above is completely fabricated, though this guy does work for Chico Bag and we like him.)

Besides hanging with our friends at Chico, we're meeting with several brands in the outdoor market to help us with our outreach and education mission in 2012.  It's inspiring to see that so many large companies are taking on the problem of plastic pollution from packaging, to supply chain.  Five years ago, this issue wasn't even on the radar, but now, more and more, progressive, socially responsible companies are embracing the goal of zero waste in their corporate responsibility plans.  Right now, the apparel industry uses an incredible amount of HDPE film wrapping their clothing from producer to retail.  Each jacket, hat, scarf, etc. is individually wrapped in hard to recycle plastic films, but more and more, companies are working to solve this problem with creative and innovative supply chain solutions. After all, if the outdoors is corrupted by pollution, it's going to affect an outdoor companies bottom line.  We say, Bravo.