Helping stop ocean plastic.

3M, in partnership with GlobalGiving, has become a Plastic Bank Ocean Steward to help stop ocean plastic and support communities in vulnerable coastal regions.

Our oceans cover 70% of the planet and play a vital role in providing oxygen and food for all.

To help protect our oceans, 3M is working with Plastic Bank to collect more than 181,000 kg of ocean-bound plastic from the coastal region of Brazil, thanks to a $100K GlobalGiving grant in partnership with 3M. Plastic Bank builds ethical recycling ecosystems by working with local collectors whom they pay to gather plastic from coastal regions around the world. Each collector receives bonuses for the materials they collect to help support themselves and their families.

The items Plastic Bank collects are broken down and sold to companies who use recycled plastic in their products, giving those resources a second life and keeping them from polluting our oceans.

This donation supports the first pillar of our Sustainability Framework — Science for Circular — and our focus on designing solutions that do more with less material, advancing a global circular economy. Not sure what “circular economy” means? A circular economy is one that uses finite resources wisely, finding ways to take resources that have already been used — such as plastic bottles — and repurpose them into a new product.