Stopover in Brazil 🇧🇷

Recife, eighth stopover of the Plastic Odyssey

A giant country with a population of over 214 million, Brazil has been hit hard by plastic pollution. Here, it’s limitless.

After the coasts of the Mediterranean, West Africa and a Transatlantic crossing, this first stopover in the Southern Hemisphere, in a country ranked as the world’s fourth-largest producer of plastic, officially marked the start of the second phase of the Plastic Odyssey expedition: South America and Pacific Mission.

In the image of Brazil, in motion and colorful, the activities on board the ship were intense throughout the stay. Over 300 children from all walks of life came to visit the boat, the Treasure Trunks exhibition reached a new audience in the cultural space of Casa Zero in Recife, new molds (to manufacture recycled plastic tiles in the on-board recycling workshop) were designed in collaboration with a local manufacturer, and finally the discovery of the Madeira-Plastica (plastic-wood), an innovative material that promises to make great strides forward in the catalog of field initiatives encountered.

The new session of the OnBoard Laboratory, which welcomed a dozen Brazilian entrepreneurs and institutions, was a warm and dynamic one in terms of cooperation. It brought together a wide range of players in the recycling sector, proving that waste management remains a complex task in such a vast and densely populated territory, particularly in Brazil’s urban areas.

At first, the language barrier may have seemed like THE main obstacle to a successful stopover, but in the end it turned out to be the best asset. The invaluable help of the volunteers, coupled with the unrivalled hospitality of the Brazilians, enabled us to immerse ourselves and gain an in-depth understanding of the country and how it works, particularly in terms of waste management.