“One Earth — One Ocean”:
Hope for the Future of the Oceans

Is it even possi­ble to get to grips with the plas­tic waste in the world’s oceans? Accord­ing to current esti­mates, there are over 150 million tonnes¹; around 10 million tonnes are added every year. But there is hope. Projects such as “One Earth — One Ocean”  are taking a stand against pollu­tion — projects that deserve all the support they can get. We have already intro­duced you to some of them in our Future news­room section, most recent­ly the plas­tic fish­er­men from 4ocean . Now we are going one step further: in addi­tion to the research work of the Alfred Wegen­er Insti­tute, we at Valdivia are now also support­ing the “Maritime Waste Dispos­al” of One Earth — One Ocean, or oeoo for short.

Glob­al commit­ment, excel­lent work 

“One Earth — One Ocean e.V.” is an envi­ron­men­tal organ­i­sa­tion based in Munich with offices in Kiel, Rio de Janeiro, Phnom Penh and Mani­la. Today, oeoo is perma­nent­ly active in eight coun­tries; the asso­ci­a­tion organ­is­es selec­tive collec­tion campaigns in other loca­tions. Its radius extends from Brazil, Ugan­da and Egypt via Europe to Cambo­dia, Malaysia, Indone­sia and the Philippines.

The organ­i­sa­tion is also involved nation­al­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly in research into microplas­tics  well as educa­tion­al and aware­ness-rais­ing work on the topic of marine litter­ing. In 2013, oeoo received the pres­ti­gious Green­Tec Award, Europe’s largest envi­ron­men­tal and busi­ness prize, for its marine litter dispos­al concept. This was followed by the Euro­pean Inven­tor Award in 2017, the German Feder­al Ecode­sign Award in 2019 and the Plan­et Hero Award in 2024.

Maritime waste as a recy­clable mate­r­i­al with a future

Typi­cal hotspots such as estu­ar­ies and coastal areas offer the best start­ing points for maritime waste dispos­al. This is where the concen­tra­tion of pollu­tion is high­est; the plas­tic waste is still rela­tive­ly undi­vid­ed and often floats on the surface as a liter­al carpet. The sad “fron­trun­ners” are rivers such as the Yangtze, Ganges, Bran­tas, Mekong or Pasig and the coasts off megac­i­ties such as Jakar­ta, Hong Kong, Mani­la or Rio de Janeiro.

At the same time, access, logis­tics and ener­gy costs are manage­able at such loca­tions. Plas­tic waste can be collect­ed here using rela­tive­ly simple, inex­pen­sive means before it breaks down into microplas­tics or sinks into the depths and damages the envi­ron­ment for centuries to come.

Howev­er, the concept of maritime waste dispos­al goes far beyond simple collec­tion. The mate­r­i­al is already being sort­ed and, where possi­ble, recy­cled. In future, the aim is also to gener­ate ener­gy and fuel from the plas­tic waste. At the same time, oeoo promotes social sustain­abil­i­ty: local helpers receive fixed salaries and thus a reli­able econom­ic basis for them­selves and their families.

An elephant that cleans

The local projects primar­i­ly collect waste using ships and boats. The organ­i­sa­tion oper­ates eleven small­er “SeeHam­ster” ships for inland waters and three larg­er “SeeKühe” ships in coastal marine regions. Both types gener­ate part of their propul­sion ener­gy from wind and solar power. Two Zodi­ac inflat­able boats and local fish­ing boats complete the oeoo fleet.

The “SeeEle­fant” (SeaEle­phant) project, which is to be deployed in just a few years’ time, is far more ambi­tious. The future flag­ship of the oeoo will be around 180 metres long and will collect and process 60,000 tonnes of plas­tic waste per year:

• The plas­tic waste is sepa­rat­ed by type in the hold using an LVP sort­ing system, pressed into plas­tic bales and fed into the recy­cling system on land.
• A waste-to-ener­gy plant, which uses sophis­ti­cat­ed filter tech­nol­o­gy to comply with the high­est inter­na­tion­al emis­sion stan­dards, gener­ates elec­tri­cal ener­gy from the ther­mal­ly util­is­able sort­ing residues, most of which can be sold and fed into onshore power grids.
• A large research hall on deck offers space and possi­bil­i­ties for waste analy­ses and process­ing tests, e.g. using waste-to-fuel technology.

You can take part too!

Whether for the health of humans and marine life or for the econ­o­my, from fish­ing to tourism — the real value of the work of “One Earth — One Ocean” is hard to quan­ti­fy. But one thing is certain: with­out such projects, our plan­et will soon no longer be a beau­ti­ful place. That’s why we support the oeoo and invite you, our read­ers, to join us! Find out more on the organisation’s website: I want to help.

Valdivia and the Sea — a profound connection

Draft in perfor­mance, passion for the sea — that’s how we found our name Valdivia. This is because “Valdivia” was the name of the first German research vessel to set out on a system­at­ic explo­ration of the deep sea in 1898. This connec­tion moti­vates us to support the explo­ration and protec­tion of the oceans in a prac­ti­cal way: as a spon­sor of the Alfred Wegen­er Insti­tute and the “One Earth One Ocean” project for maritime waste disposal.

(foot­note)

• Calcu­la­tion based on a study by the World Econom­ic Forum, Ellen MacArthur Foun­da­tion and McKin­sey & Compa­ny: “The New Plas­tics Econ­o­my: Rethink­ing the future of plas­tics” (2016), and the German Feder­al Envi­ron­ment Agency.

(Image source: OneEarthOneOcean)