The waters are our playground. Our minds are dreaming of clear waters without plastic floating by.
Aiming to make this vision reality, Starboard pioneered the Plastic Offset Program (POP) to offset the impact of the amount of plastic used in the business. Measuring our plastic footprint using POP allows us to assign an internal plastic tax that we financially charge ourselves.
As our boards are made with various types of plastic so we have to ensure we are covering all areas when it comes to offsetting our plastic use. To do this we categorize plastic impact into three different factors; the duration of use, toxicity, and waste. Companies can use these factors to assess the amount of investment they need to action to mitigate their plastic impact. POP also encourages companies to rethink, redesign and reduce the use of plastic in products. As a result of this Starboard is now packaging boards in no plastic.
Starboard has calculated an internal tax charge of $0.10 to $0.50 per kilo of plastic, the tax then funds internal projects that retrieve plastic from the ocean. 43,000kg is the amount we are aiming to take out from the ocean this year, by June.
Driving to reach the goal of a trash-free playground we want to ensure we are thoroughly offsetting our plastic impact. We do this by measuring how on track we are with our goals by updating our progressive chart after each cleanup. Below is a snapshot of how we are doing so far, view the full live report here.
Snapshot of the POP Progressive Chart 2019
Helping us reach our target is an amazing team who pick up trash at least twice a week in Pattaya. As a result of the teams’ incredible efforts picking up the trash, they receive a second income from the Plastic Offset Program.
POP team picking up all sizes of plastic, Pattaya 2019
POP team and their many kilos of trash after a Pattaya clean up, 2019
After being on a trash-filled beach for the day our team then sorts the findings into categories; recyclables, fabrics and unusable trash. Items such as; flipflops, straws, lighters and bottle caps are kept for artwork.
Sorting trash into categories after POP a cleanup, 2019
The ocean is our playground. Let’s keep enjoying our unique and fun connection with the waters and protect it from the trash that should not be there.
