Solutions to Microplastics Pollution

Everything is a design and with our Abundanism masterclass students we love to envision healthy futures and scale-up groundbreaking innovations. Our own journey has been a true journey. We became minimalists for abundance in 2012 and started designing projects, making ESG-consultancy reports full of interconnected solutions, and we scaled ecosystem restoration with education to ensure enough local resources and local economic activity.

This was one of our masterclasses:

Problem: microplastics in air and water.

Some root causes:

• washing synthetic fibers.

• vehicle tire wear.

We observed nature and we found that although men think the wheel is their best invention, nature has no wheels. Too much friction. Too much contact. Too silly. Nature's fastest animal is a cheetah. it is flexible, very angular in her movements and bouncing without touching the ground. Using gravity in optimum ways.

The Natural Leap Model is a little adapted from a framework made by the Swedish cancer scientist Karl Henrik Robert in 1989. The methodology is very much used in Sweden and Canada for sustainable innovations. The original model is central on "no extraction". No mining. No water extraction. No human extraction. We use this model for our workshops and designs since 2012.

A: invent a future without microplastic pollution

B: how big is the problem and what are the biggest root causes

C: jump to solutions - you will find 1000+ solutions

D: make projects. Big or small projects to solve the whole puzzle as best you can

E: involve the stakeholders and design the cheaper economic solutions - we use a different model for that

The baseline analysis is always about volumes. Circular Economy is often not a solution because in an industrial production process only 20% is product. 80% is by-product and doesn't have a market. You can't "create" a market for such big volumes.

1000+ Solutions

The solutions are always found in the patterns. You can:

• Change the plastic/polymer to be "strong during lifespan and biodegradable afterwards". This is called biodesign and often uses enzymes that kick in after a certain time or when it enters e.g. a salty (sea) environment.

• Use sonic wave washing machines instead of washing with water. Has the extra benefit that the washing liquids no longer turn into glyphosate in the drinking water process.

• Make roads with solar stripes and let vehicles be Internet of Things (IoT) connected like snakes. Hovercraft methods without wheels

• etc. etc.

Our students often want to make a business, so they want to invent new things, patent it and sell it. But when we write our ESG (environmental and social governance) reports for governments, we tell them about existing solutions.

Have a look at this movie: Plastic Earth. And see how many solutions have already been found. Novamont with thistle plastics (biochemistry Italy) was my first find. But PHA came next when we moved into the Blue Innovation Center in Venlo (2014). Bacteria enzyme plastics. It is scaling up big time now in the drink bottle industry.

10 solutions that are already scaling big. Several of them are Dutch like us.

We wish you loads of design pleasure.

Warm regards,

Desiree.