OCEAN PLASTIC TSUNAMI - OCEAN COASTERS

8 million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in our oceans every year.

This interruption of the life-dependent ecosystem endangers all sea life species and risks our own species’ health and well-being.

Plastic is one of the most useful materials humans have ever created. It’s great for forming organic shapes and allows for affordable products. It is durable, water-resistant and can create a range of colorways. Our problem is not with plastic as a material but what we use it for. We make so many things that don’t require the longevity and purpose that plastic has been designed for. Generally, we don’t need the straw we use to sip one drink or the bag we bought at the supermarket to carry groceries several steps up the road, before going in the bin.

Because plastic is so cheap to produce it’s an attractive material for companies looking to bolster margins and profits. So as much as consumers have to change their habits and use of single-use products, it’s imperative that we see top-down change, with big companies leading from the front. 

The smaller the piece of plastic, the greater the number of species who will consume it. It’s not just the albatross or sperm whale that ingest plastic bags. Microplastics and nanoplastics are eaten by sea cucumbers, corals, clams and muscles, zooplankton and krill – all at the very base of the food web, meaning all levels are infiltrated. And where the plastics go, chemicals follow.

JoyResolve Ocean coasters are made from ocean plastic collected, cleaned and processed for reuse. But the task of creating our repurposed coasters is not a commercial alternative, costing around 10 times more than normal plastic. This isn’t a product we want to make forever and one day we hope to run out of source material, as humanity’s environmental impact on the planet’s ocean lessens. We created these coasters as a way of presenting a stylish product that sparks not only conversation but a shift in public consciousness, heralding a move towards active, ethical consumer behaviour.