WE FUND A PORTFOLIO OF VETTED PROJECTS
PROTECTING HABITATS & CULTURE
DISCOVER

Planet Buyback is excited to announce our partnership with Bye Bye Plastic Foundation - a nonprofit, co-founded by DJ & Producer BLOND:ISH, that is tackling the single-use plastic problem within the music industry. We will be joining forces to support BBP's newly launched Clean The Beat program which is a global series of musically-powered cleanups focused on data collection, plastic circularity, and of course, live music! The project will be landing on the beautiful, yet sadly littered shores of Tulum, MX to collect plastic debris that has resulted from ocean wash-ups and tourism litter and will be converted into 1 of 6 different biofuels via Petgas.

 

Budget: $7K (USD)
Estimated Attendees to the Tulum event:
• Attendees: 100
• DJs: 8-10
• Volunteers: 20
Expected Waste Collection: 225 kilos; ~ 500lbs (in one hour)

 

Miami Cleanup Stats:
Attendees: 75
DJs: 17
Volunteers: 35
Total Waste Collection: 3,136 pounds

 

01. Challenge:

Major music festivals can produce well over 200,000 pounds of trash per day - a shocking number that leaves cleanup crews, landfills, and our environment overwhelmed. With the popularity of these music festivals growing and expanding to scenic countries like Mexico, specifically Tulum, the trash and pollution has become unmanageable and often results to being dumped in the jungles or beaches and negatively impacting wildlife.

 

02. Solution:

Bye Bye Plastic aims to reduce single-use plastic consumption by bringing awareness to this music-industry driven issue through action-based initiatives like Clean The Beat - a musically-powered cleanup initiative that engages local music communities to cleanup densely littered popular locations to visually show the impact of our plastic consumption and improper disposal of items that end up becoming trash. The Clean The Beat launch in Miami, FL collected 3,136 pounds of trash.

 

03. Long-Term Impact:

$7,000 launches a Clean The Beat program in Tulum, Mexico. This includes all operational costs. The cleanup is expected to host over 100 attendees and DJs to collect over 500 pounds of trash near the famous Tulum Ruins. The long term impact is to inspire event promoters, hotel owners, tourist and locals alike to switch to a system of reusables and minimize their environmental impact and leave the beautiful backdrops they have enjoyed so much just as it was naturally - plastic free.

 

 

01. Challenge:

While Morotai’s ecosystems are healthy now, threats are growing. Illegal fishing, habitat destruction, and climate change are on the rise – and plans to massively increase tourism could devastate the environment if not well managed.

 

02. Solution:

Fortunately, the government wants to protect Morotai’s precious ecosystems by creating a network of Surf Protected Areas. This will conserve huge areas of pristine habitat around important surf breaks and promote sustainable surf tourism.

 

03. Long-Term Impact:

This is just the start. We will expand from here to create networks of Surf Protected Areas around the world, starting with Fiji, Costa Rica and Mexican coastlines with the Surf Conservation Partnership.

Partner Organization: The Global Livingston Institute

 

Planet Buyback and The Global Livingston Institute are partnering to launch a community recycling center in Lira, Uganda with the goal of scaling up throughout the country.

 

01. Challenge:

In recent decades, the production and consumption of plastic in Uganda has exploded. In 2018 alone, Uganda imported $385.5 mil of plastic, which is approximately 210,000 tons. Uganda only collects ~6%. This means that each year, approximately 195,000 tons of plastic are left in the ecosystem, creating disastrous consequences. There is a clear need to improve the waste infrastructure and address poverty in Uganda and the problem is as urgent as ever.  

 

"approximately 195,000 tons of plastic are left in the ecosystem, creating disastrous consequences"

 

02. Solution:

In just two short years, the Global Livingston Institute has recycled almost 350 tons of plastic, while injecting ~$25,000 into the local economy. Because of the success of their first center and to provide community benefit to Ugandans reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are looking to help expand their efforts by building more recycling centers.  

03. Long-Term Impact:

$15,000 launches a new center in Lira. This includes personal and operation costs. The new center will collect over 20 metric tons of plastic in the first six months of its operations and will provide approximately 200 employment opportunities to Uganda’s most vulnerable populations: former child soldiers, people living in poverty and unemployed Ugandans of all ages.  

Partner Organization: Caminos de Agua

 

01. Challenge:

The Upper Río Laja Watershed provides life-sustaining water to more than 680,000 residents in central Mexico and is in crisis. The aquifer is declining at an alarming rate, from 2-3 meters per year – some of the most overexploited groundwater in the world – due to over-extraction by industrial agriculture. Community wells are drying up and the remaining water often contains 10x or more World Health Organization limits of arsenic and fluoride. This toxic cocktail causes irreversible health complications like dental & crippling skeletal fluorosis, skin disease, developmental & learning disabilities in children, chronic kidney disease, and several types of cancer. Worst of all, children are the most acutely impacted as their bodies absorb these contaminants at a much higher rate. Upwards of 300 million people, with an estimated 21 million in Mexico alone, suffer from excessive levels of arsenic and fluoride in their water supplies, with almost no appropriate solutions available to remove these problematic contaminants.

 

02. Solution:

Caminos de Agua’s (CdA) plan is to continue to educate & build rainwater harvesting solutions together with impacted communities at risk. Traditional water filters, and nearly all other water solutions, simply do not remove arsenic and fluoride. Rainwater is inherently free of these contaminants and also immune to the threats of water-table loss from dwindling aquifers. Combined with CdA’s award-winning ceramic water filter to remove pathogens, rainwater becomes a safe and healthy drinking water source. To date, CdA has helped thousands of people across 78 rural communities, along with 30 schools, gain clean water access through the installation of more than 250 large-scale rainwater harvesting systems, 5,000 water filters, and many other solutions. Community-led rainwater harvesting projects improve community health, educate locals, reduce stress on over-extracted aquifers, and give people control over their drinking water supply.

 

03. Long-Term Impact:

CdA believes that successful projects are based on the intersection of low-cost, proven solutions with a community-driven implementation model. Local communities provide hundreds of hours of volunteer labor for every rainwater installation and make all decisions regarding location and organization based on need and participation. In this way, CdA’s water solutions strengthen existing community processes – contributing to stronger, better-organized, and more resilient rural communities in the long-term. $10,000 builds 10 large-scale rainwater harvesting systems, providing a lifetime of clean drinking water access – nearly 5 million liters over 40 years – to 20 families while allowing future generations to avoid the chronic health impacts of overexposure to arsenic and fluoride.