Categories: Startup

The Best Solution For Cleaning The Rivers To Save The Oceans

Our most important resource is under serious threat. The Oceans produce more than 50% of Earth’s oxygen and absorb 25% of CO2. Yet, every minute a truckload worth of plastic is dumped into the sea. By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the Ocean. 70% to 80% of this plastic reaches the Oceans through rivers, and once it is there, it starts to degrade into microplastic becoming practically impossible to recover and can easily enter our food chain once eaten by fishes. The only hope is to stop this plastic BEFORE it gets there.

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SEADS Sea Defence Solutions is a British start-up that developed The BLUE BARRIERS, a patented technology designed to optimally and permanently address Ocean plastic pollution by stopping it before it gets there and transforming it into a resource.

Founded by Fabio Dalmonte in 2018, he retains the role of Managing Director. He has more than 10 years of experience as a Waste management and environmental consultant and solid expertise in CSR management. In 2019 Mauro Nardocci, a former executive with more than 10 years of experience in FMCG Marketing, Strategy & Leadership, joined as Communication Director.

These Two Italian friends, Fabio and Mauro, one based in London and the other one from New York, joined forces to fight against plastic pollution in the oceans coming from rivers. Fabio came up with the idea of the Blue Barriers during a research project on waste management in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2014.

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He noted the huge amount of debris that floated on the Ciliwung River, which flows through the Indonesian capital.

“All the waste that ends up in the sea, ruins the beaches, damages the environment affects tourism and causes serious problems to local communities.” That is where he started thinking about a possible solution that would fit any river and permanently address this issue.

“Our dream is to bring value to our society by protecting the world’s Oceans and their incredible wildlife, collecting plastic waste and transforming it in an important resource. The human race cannot survive without healthy Oceans”. Said Fabio Dalmonte

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“We are in the process to agree on the term of the first permanent installation, the budget for the installation has been allocated and we are working on the contract agreements with the public administration (our client). We proved through extensive tests at the hydrodynamic lab of the University of Florence that our Blue Barriers stop 100% of plastic, 92% during floodings. These results have been confirmed by a further test on a large-scale prototype in the Lamone river in Northern Italy. “. Said by Mauro Nardocci

Mauro and Fabio met while working both for an Italian Pasta company. Mauro has been a VP of marketing in the same company around the world, while Fabio went on to specialize in Waste Management in the UK, carrying on projects all over South East Asia.

They want the general public to know that solutions exist to Stop the Ocean Plastic Pollution and demand their implementation.

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Customers are mainly Local Administrations, governments, river protection task forces. Clearly, there is also an audience of corporate clients who are interested in investing in the installation of Blue Barriers as part of their Sustainability efforts. The feedback so far was extremely positive, as it is a simple and affordable yet extremely effective solution to solve the massive plastic pollution issues. Moreover, recent research from Deloitte (The price tag of plastic pollution, 2019) shows how for Local Authorities doing nothing is WAY more expensive than installing river plastic interception technology like the Blue Barriers. In fact, doing nothing means still having to address the cost of reduced Tourism, less productive Fisheries, occasional beach cleaning, and in the long term this issue will affect the health of local populations as more and more plastic enters the Food Chain as the fishes eat the plastic.

We are forecasting to be above breakeven already in 2020 thanks to sponsorship agreements for 168K euro that we are about to sign. All costs of the installation of our first permanent barrier on the Ciliwung river will be covered. Structural breakeven will be achieved in 2021 when we estimate to install 3 barriers in small rivers. At the moment we are prioritizing donations, sponsorships, grants, and awards. However, after the first permanent barrier installation, they will open to investors. Said by Mauro Nardocci

NEXT STORY: SPACEMESH IS BREAKING DOWN THE BARRIERS TO ADOPTION OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

Message from the Founders

Oceans produce 70% of Earth’s Oxygen and absorb over 25% of CO2. Without healthy Oceans, there is no life. And yet, 10 million tons of plastic gets in the Ocean every year. It kills 100.000 sea mammals, 1 million sea birds, and countless fish. Now we know that 80% of plastic gets to the Oceans through rivers and has effective affordable solutions to stop it. We need to fix this now!