Anvendt havplast - Ute- og innemøbler av eierløs havplast - produkter for en regenerativ verdikjede.

What is the value of cleaning up? Over the last centuries, businesses have profited from converting non-renewable natural resources into goods with varying, but most often short lifetimes. This has created a tremendous economic growth, but also a growth in marine litter, pollution and greenhouse gases. One of the clearest results of this linear consumer economy is now washing ashore on Norwegian beaches in the form plastic marine litter and other types of human generated waste. Together with volunteers from all over the world Norwegians clean our beaches for litter year after year. But even though the plastic is removed from the beaches and shorelines, it does not disappear from nature. Today, all waste collected is either incinerated, or deposited in landfills, creating new environmental for future generations to solve. Instead of permanently solving the problem, society spends thousands of hours and huge amounts each year moving the marine litter from the sea just to release it back to earth or air. The partners in the project are now collaborating with Ogoori to recycle ownerless ocean plastic into new plastic raw materials. The plastic will be available to actors who want to take responsibility for the prevention of the material of being lost to the environment yet again, with products and materials being tracked throughout the value chain using blockchain technology. This research project will develop and research new plastic raw materials and products from marine plastics. We want to find out how the non-material value of plastic can be captured in design objects for a service model, and be transformed into economic value that can finance more cleanup. The project will also investigate how resource utilization can be made as efficient as possible through coarse sorting near the collection point, and whether participating in the value chain with new specialized competence can provide an experience of increased intrinsic value for the individual. During the first year of the project, we made great progress. The first collection of marine plastic was registered through Empower and recycled to new granulate. This resulted in a survey of the types of marine waste that can be granulated, and we ended up with four different fractions. The quality of the material of the four fractions was analyzed by SINTEF. Granulate from the first test were then used in two products; Petrel, which is a focus tool developed by Ope, and Coast which is an outdoor bench developed by Vestre. Through the first test, we have received a good indication that the material from ownerless marine plastic has good enough quality, and a real value. During year two of the project, we carried out a large manual sorting, where representatives from Salt Lofoten were involved to test and further develop a sorting protocol. The goal is for the sorting protocol to be used by beach cleaners for efficient sorting, so that the plastic that can be recycled is transported for processing and what cannot be recycled is sent to the nearest waste operator. Circular Ways was involved and engaged people from Medvandrerne where Sintef performed qualitative research on inclusion. Circular Ways is working to develop a work model where the purpose is to maximize value creation in the value chain by building competence in people with reduced working capacity. We also investigated the value creation potential of marine plastics through a quantitative survey that gave good indications that there is an increased willingness to pay when the customer is made aware of the origin and history of the material. We want to bring this knowledge about the material, value creation, sorting and value of the inclusion of people in the value chain into further product development, and focus on the product being loaded with a non-material value. This value is built up from the material's unique origin, and the stories it carries with it. Furthermore, it becomes important how we test the effect of this value.

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Eierløs havplast har lav teknisk verdi, og er dyrt å samle inn og resirkulere. Å bygge immateriell verdi inn i materialet gjennom hele verdikjeden er nøkkelen til å generere verdi for både sluttkunde og aktører i verdikjeden. Å forstå hvordan den immaterielle verdien oppstår og fanges er nøkkelen til hvordan verdien kan ivaretas og vokse gjennom hele verdikjeden, og generere verdi for sluttkunden, samt lønnsomhet for de enkelte bedriftene i verdikjeden. Det er betydelig verdiskapingspotensial knyttet til ivaretakelse av den unike historien havplasten bærer i seg. En leie-/tjenestemodell for produkter og/eller materialet i verdikjeden vil ha stor betydning for lønnsomhet og konkurransekraft for prosjektpartnerene, og tilby høyere bruksverdi pr anvendt krone for sluttkunder, enn en tradisjonell lineær forretningsmodell der produktene selges. En slik forretningsmodell har potensial til å skape en disruptiv effekt i møtet med lineære verdikjeder, og akselerere overgangen til sirkulær økonomi. Det finnes få eksempler fra Norge på fungerende helhetlige sirkulære modeller, og er derfor behov for referanseprosjekter for suksessfull bruk av sirkulære forretningsmodeller og –verdikjeder. Skalering av aktiviteter i verdikjeden basert på økende etterspørsel etter merverdien knyttet til materialet, vil ha omfattende konsekvenser gjennom hele verdikjeden, og kan generere mange nye arbeidsplasser i de tilkoblede næringene. Det finnes i dag ikke produkter eller råvarer i markedet med sammenliknbart opphav/egenskaper, der maksimal utnytting av avfallet, industriell produksjon og full distribusjon er en del av rammen. Utvikling av sluttproduktene krever forskning på havplastens materialegenskaper og sammensetning, samt testing av nytt plastmateriale basert på denne forskningen. Utnytting av den ikkematerielle verdien i materialet krever forskning på hvordan slik verdi oppstår, og kvalitetssikring av aktivitetene i verdikjeden.