Global resource sustainability company TOMRA has joined as a science advisor and gold sponsor for the highly-anticipated ‘eXXpedition Round The World’, a two-year all-female sailing voyage focused on researching microplastic pollution.
TOMRA
TOMRA on-board for eXXpedition mission
The 2018 eXXpedition crew ready to set sail
Four women from the TOMRA team will also roll up their sleeves and get on-board as crew members to work on the mission.
eXXpedition Round The World 2019-2021 will see 300 women join 30 voyages that transverse the Arctic and four of the globe’s trash gyres (where marine plastic gathers in a system of circular ocean currents). These are some of the most important and diverse marine environments on the planet. The first voyage departs on 8 October from Plymouth, UK, toward the Azores.
TOMRA also sponsored last year’s eXXpedition voyage from Hawaii to Vancouver, crossing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the North Pacific: the fifth gyre and the densest accumulation zone for ocean plastic on the planet.
Kristine Berg, Circular Economy Advisor at TOMRA and crew member of last year’s North Pacific voyage, said: “You can’t truly provide solutions until you understand the problem, and you can’t understand the problem until you get out and see it first-hand … we at TOMRA need to see the true scale of the pollution to build understanding and urgency around the issue of marine litter.”
Emily Penn, eXXpedition Co-founder and Mission Leader, said: “We are thrilled to have TOMRA back on-board with the eXXpedition journey. TOMRA has literally made it their business to be innovative leaders in the resource revolution, providing smart solutions for the sustainability of our planet’s resources.”
Scientific research into ocean plastics
eXXpedition’s cutting-edge scientific research on ocean plastics will pursue both sea- and land-based investigation, led respectively by Professor Richard Thompson (University of Plymouth) and Professor Jenna Jambeck (National Geographic explorer and Director at the University of Georgia).
TOMRA Senior Vice-President for Circular Economy Strategy Dr Daniel Schwaab will be part of eXXpedition’s science advisory board. With a PhD in physics and a strategic perspective of the circular economy of plastics, he will bridge the gap between science and business implementation.
The four TOMRA employees joining the voyage, like all other crew members, will be involved hands-on in gathering research samples.
As well as scientific research and raising awareness of the devastating impact of plastic in the world’s oceans, eXXpedition strives to celebrate women in science and leadership.
