Project Kaisei Joins Forces with the Bureau of International Recycling

The Bureau of International Recycling Commits to Help Fund, Project Kaisei’s First Expedition to the Northern Pacific Gyre .

San Francisco, Hong Kong and Brussels - Project Kaisei is pleased to announce that the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), the international federation of recycling industries, is now officially a sponsor of Kaisei’s two-boat expedition to assess the impact of and techniques for removing marine debris in the Pacific Ocean. The Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling has committed a major amount to the mission, making it one of the two principal sponsors of Project Kaisei.

“We are very excited to be supporting Project Kaisei’s first research expedition to the North Pacific Gyre,” said Dominique Maguin, BIR President. “The Project Kaisei team has ambitious plans, which are fully in line with BIR’s mission to increase recycling and recyclability. Our members across the globe are providing industry with nearly 50% of the raw materials needed, and we can still increase this figure. The collection of waste can be improved and the recycling activities are indispensible for saving energy, gas emissions and natural resources. It is of paramount importance to leave a safe, clean and welcoming planet for future generations. Project Kaisei represents an innovative constructive approach to addressing a problem that would not have been there if recycling had been promoted and implemented by all nations. We believe that by collaborating together it will bring benefits to both of our organizations, as well as for the whole planet.”

Project Kaisei is a group of scientists and ocean lovers who set up to study the North Pacific Gyre and the plastic debris that has collected in this oceanic region, to determine how to capture it and to study possible processing techniques that would allow the recycling of captured materials into diesel fuel. The project’s first research expedition, comprising two boats, will set sail on August 2nd and 3rd from San Diego and San Francisco.

“We are very fortunate to have garnered the financial support of BIR and we are delighted that they have become one of our main sponsors,” said Doug Woodring, Project Kaisei’s Co-Founder and Project Director. “Together with the scientific endorsement and ongoing collaboration of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, BIR’s sponsorship provides us with the necessary resources to carry out our mission this summer. We hope to be able to come back with answers to the many questions surrounding the large volumes of waste in the ocean, the damage it causes to the ocean ecosystem and the ways to fight it.”

The Bureau of International Recycling - BIR is the international trade association of the recycling industries based in Brussels, Belgium. Around 70 countries are represented through national trade associations and individual companies involved in recycling. BIR comprises four commodity divisions: iron and steel, non ferrous metals, paper and textiles, and has committees dealing with stainless steel and special alloys, plastics and rubber. BIR’s primary goals are to promote recycling and recyclability, thereby conserving natural resources, protecting the environment and facilitating free trade of secondary raw materials.

In a recent study carried out by the Imperial College of London on behalf of BIR, it was established that through the recycling of seven metals plus recovered paper CO2 emissions are reduced by about 500 million tonnes per annum, which is equivalent to approaching 2% of global fossil fuel emissions.

About Project Kaisei- Project Kaisei consists of a team of innovators, scientists, environmentalists, ocean lovers, sailors, and sports enthusiasts who have come together with a common purpose: to study the North Pacific Gyre and the marine debris that has collected in this oceanic region, to determine how to capture the debris and to study the possible retrieval and processing techniques that could be potentially employed to detoxify and recycle these materials into diesel fuel.

Project Kaisei is organized under the Ocean Voyages Institute, which is a non-profit organization devoted to the preservation of the Maritime Arts and Arts and Sciences and the Ocean Environment. Ocean Voyages Institute is a “501 C 3” California Registered non-profit organization.

. For more information, to donate, and to pre-register to follow the expedition in real-time with the ‘Project Kaisei Interactive Voyage Tracker’ [http://www.projectkaisei.org]