#tide Thailand’s operational director Dr. Michel Pardos is already running a social enterprise in Ranong, which is being implemented and supported by the Swiss non-profit Jan & Oscar Foundation and the International Union for Conversation of Nature (IUCN). Together with his associate, Mr. Joachim Ung, Dr. Pardos is scaling up #tide’s presence and supply chain in Thailand whilst guaranteeing the credibility, traceability and humanitarian background of #tide ocean material.
Local fisherman like the Moken people (an ethnic minority of so called gypsies of the Sea) are getting trained and paid for collecting and sorting ocean plastic. The waste is being registered, washed and sorted in Ranong and then shipped to Switzerland with a carbon-neutral footprint. In Switzerland, #tide is upcycling the plastic and transforming it into granules and yarns that are used for new sustainable products.
Dr. Pardos is not only an expert in biology (having a PhD at the University of Geneva), he has also established connections to local politicians and members of the Royal Family. They are very much aware of the issues their country is facing and are endorsing #tide Thailand’s project. Mom Rajawongse Jaruwan Rangsit of the Kingdom of Thailand, recently invited Dr. Pardos and #tide co-founder Marc Krebs for a presentation of the project. “I am happy to hear about #tide ocean’s great initiative in Thailand. Many touristic areas and mostly islands are drowning in waste and urgently need solutions like these to reduce ocean plastic”, the Princess says in her supportive resumé.
#tide plans to collect more than 600’000 pounds of ocean plastic in a year. An ambitious but not an unreasonable goal. Today more than 80 international brands are developing products with #tide ocean material.
Lausanne based Jan & Oscar Foundation is in memory of 2 Swiss children who lost their lives in Thailand when a devastating tsunami hit Asia in 2004. Since then, their mother Laurence Pian has implemented more than 40 projects, building schools and creating jobs.
Source: www.tide.earth
