Communications of the ACM
A Simple Online System That Could End Plastic Pollution
A pilot project in the Philippines is rewarding those who collect plastic garbage that washes ashore with cybercurrency.
Credit: Getty Images
In December 2018, New York City-based Bounties Network collected three tons of garbage from Manila Bay in the Philippines over the course of two days.
The effort was part of a pilot project that paid a small network of people, mostly fishermen, for each cache of trash with a digital currency based on the Ethereum system.
This type of system could enable poor communities around the world to help clean up humanity's waste, starting at the source of the bulk of global ocean pollution.
In September 2018, Vancouver, Canada-based blockchain company Plastic Bank launched a similar project in Naga, a small town in the Philippines, in which local residents traded plastic and other recyclable materials for digital payouts through a reward system.
From BBC News
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2019 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA
No entries found