Plastic Fischer

🦩 VOTE to Stop the Leak: Protect Mumbai's Flamingos & Mangroves with us According to a landmark study in Nature, India has the highest rate of plastic leakage globally. Mumbai is the frontline of this crisis, releasing 5 million kilograms of plastic into the Arabian Sea every year. We are on a mission to change this – and you can help. Your vote turns the tide. Literally! If we win the €20,000 prize, we will scale our operations on the ground to stop the flow at the source. The Plan: ⚈ Deploy Proven Technology: We use our "TrashBoom"—a high-impact, low-tech solution that stops plastic in rivers before it ever reaches the ocean. ⚈ Recover 20,000 kg of Waste: We will intercept and process at least 20 tonnes of plastic from Mumbai’s most critical "plastic arteries". ⚈ Protect the "Lungs of Mumbai": We are defending 152 km² of mangroves and 107 protected species (including our iconic flamingos) currently being suffocated by debris. ⚈ Direct Local Leadership: This is a community-led strike. We create fair, full-time jobs for locals who lead our operations. ⚈ Defend 1.9 Million Lives: This is about more than just nature. We are protecting the fishing communities that rely on these waters and the natural flood barriers that keep Mumbai safe from rising tides. Clean mangroves are Mumbai's best defence against climate change. The Difference: We Don't Cherry-Pick. Most cleanup organisations only pick up what is "valuable". We stop 100% of plastic types, including the thin films and non-recyclable waste that entangle wildlife and destroy mangroves. We don't just move the problem; we ensure responsible processing for everything we catch. Vote for a proven, data-driven strike against plastic. Let’s keep Mumbai’s mangroves green and its flamingos pink. 🌱

All about us in 90 seconds. Winning the €20k ChangeNOW grant will allow us to scale our MRF operations and intercept an additional 20,000 kg of waste before it breaks down into toxic microplastics. If you believe in transparent, data-driven, and honest waste management, please cast your vote for Plastic Fischer today. 🫶🏼 🌊

Ever wondered what happens AFTER we pull plastic out of rivers? Getting waste out of the water is only half the battle. The real magic (and hard work) happens at our purpose-built Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs). We don't just dump the waste on a landfill. Once our TrashBooms catch it, we bring it to our MRFs to dry it out and segregate it into two distinct categories: 1. Recyclables (~5%): Items like PET, HDPE, aluminum, and glass are reintroduced straight into the local supply chain. We even run our own micro-recycling projects, turning this waste into parts for our own TrashBooms, signaling vests, tiles, and pouches! 2. Non-Recyclables (~95%): This is the tough stuff: multilayer plastics, styrofoam, and thin films that nobody else wants. We send these for co-processing in cement kilns, where it replaces coal. This completely prevents it from ever ending up back in the ocean or taking up space in a landfill. Let’s be real for a second: We aren't magicians who can magically turn linear materials into perfect circular opportunities. But co-processing is the internationally recognized best practice for non-recyclable waste, and it is infinitely better than the alternatives. Every single kilogram we sort is verified, tracked, and creates fair, full-time jobs for our 100+ local team members in India and Indonesia. 👷🏽‍♂️🇮🇳🇮🇩 🗳️ Help us scale this infrastructure! Winning the €20k ChangeNOW grant will allow us to scale our operations and intercept an additional 20,000 kg of waste before it breaks down into toxic microplastics. If you believe in transparent, data-driven, and honest waste management, please cast your vote for Plastic Fischer today! Thank you for your support, and let's keep our rivers clean!

Have you ever felt that sometimes the solutions need to be more simple? In a world obsessed with over-engineering, high-tech drones, expensive autonomous gadgets, and tech-solutionism, we chose a different path for Mumbai's rivers. We chose Low-Tech. Take a look at our TrashBoom system. It is simple, it is elegant, and it is highly effective (and it won multiple awards from Dyson to World Economic Forum). The Low-Tech Superpowers: Locally Sourced & Scalable: Our TrashBooms are built entirely from locally available materials. We don't wait months for custom, imported high-tech parts to clear customs. If a part needs replacing, we can source it and fix it locally within hours, keeping our systems running and reducing down-time. Cost-Efficient: Because we don't spend hundreds of thousands of euros on fragile electronics that struggle in harsh, polluted river environments, every Euro goes further. Low-tech means we can deploy more barriers across more "plastic arteries" for a fraction of the cost. THE condition to scale this. 100% Interception: Our physical floating barrier doesn't care about resale value — it blocks all plastic. It stops the thin films, plastic bags, and multi-layer wrappers that many cleanups leave, preventing them from suffocating Mumbai's mangroves. Designed for Human Impact: High-tech automation replaces people. Our low-tech approach creates jobs. It integrates perfectly with the local community, turning the cleanup into a reliable, full-time economic engine for the people who want to improve their livelihoods and their communities. Sometimes, the best solution is the simplest one. We would appreciate if you vote for us here in this Challenge! Many thanks. If we win, 100% of that money goes straight into building and deploying more of these high-impact, low-tech barriers to stop at least 20,000 kg of plastic and ensure responsible processing. 👉 Cast your vote, and let’s keep Mumbai’s mangroves green and its flamingos pink with solutions that actually work. Thank you! 🫶🏼

✊🏾 Beyond the Dashboard: Meet the Team Doing the Work What I love about my job is working with a wild team of intrinsically motivated people who don’t just talk about change — they implement it. This week, I’ve been in deep sessions with Harish, our managing director in India. We’ve been plotting new coalitions and planning exactly how to scale our mission: removing as many kg of plastic from waterways before it reaches the ocean. Why this isn't just a "social media campaign": Direct Implementation: We aren't an intermediary or a platform. We are the ones on the water. (we focus on local ownership and direct employment) Proven Track Record: We have already deployed over 65 TrashBoom systems across Asia. This isn't a pilot; it’s a proven, scalable solution. Ton by Ton: While others focus on "sellable" plastic, Harish and his team are on the ground (and in the water) doing the hard work — collecting the thin films and non-recyclables that actually destroy ecosystems. Sometimes I have to shake myself knowing that we’re out there every day, boots on the ground, actually doing the work. 🗳️ Help us scale Harish’s mission in Mumbai We are in this race for a €20,000 prize that would go directly toward scaling our work in Mumbai’s critical waterways. One vote takes 10 seconds, but it funds months of impact for Harish’s team. Please vote for us :) Cheers, Felix Watch the full documentary of our work in the comments below. 🌊