Starboard is guilty in playing a contributing role in the plastic industry, but we are working together to become part of the solution by offsetting our plastic footprint.
The ICUN estimates at least 8 million tonnes of plastic reaches the oceans each year. As surfers, this is something we experience during every session we have on the water and we see this problem increasing at an alarming rate. The problem is here and we have to act now.
Starboard is the first to put an internal price on plastic based on usage. At the end of 2017 we initiated the world’s first plastic offset program (POP). We assign a dollar value to each material based on its lifespan, recycled/bio content, and harm to the environment, then multiply this by how much is used to make our products. The funds from the tax goes to a pilot program that cleans up plastic from the beaches in Pattaya, Thailand, offsetting Starboards plastic impact.
The POP program encourages us to rethink and reinvent how we use plastic and further reduce the plastic consumption. Eliminating plastics from production, or switching to less harmful varieties and recycled sources (and thus with lower offset prices) incentivised re-engineering and reduction of plastic consumption habits.
When you purchase a board, you are helping us pick up more trash through our Plastic Offset Program. For each board produced we pick up 1.1 kg of beach / ocean plastic trash. This is the equivalent to the amount of plastic trash entering the ocean, per person, per year.
