Kia signs a seven-year Global Partnership deal with The Ocean Cleanup
Kia Corporation and The Ocean Cleanup have formally commenced a seven-year cooperation to explore innovative ways to co-create solutions that will support a more sustainable future, according to The Ocean Cleanup's release.
The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization based in the Netherlands, developing and scaling technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. They aim to achieve this goal by taking a two-sided approach: stemming the inflow via rivers and cleaning up what has already accumulated in the ocean. For the latter, The Ocean Cleanup is developing large-scale systems to efficiently concentrate the plastic for periodic removal. To curb the tide via rivers, The Ocean Cleanup has developed Interceptor™ Solutions to halt and extract riverine plastic before it reaches the ocean.
Seen as an essential initiative in Kia’s journey towards a sustainable future, Kia will support The Ocean Cleanup financially to initiate ocean and river cleanup projects. also create a resource circulation system that will help avoid harvested plastics ending up back in the environment by integrating part of the catch from The Ocean Cleanup’s innovative devices into Kia’s production and value chain process.
For seven years, Kia will support The Ocean Cleanup as an official “Global Partner” via financial contributions and in-kind supplies to support ocean operations and the construction of the various river cleaning devices – The Ocean Cleanup’s Interceptor Solutions. In addition, Kia will also supply four electric vehicles, including one EV6 and three Niro EVs, to the organization’s headquarters in the Netherlands. In return, The Ocean Cleanup will supply usable fractions of the collected plastic and share the organization’s research results and relevant data on reducing plastic pollution with Kia.
This partnership is one of the key strategies in Kia’s corporate vision to build a sustainable future for mobility. Kia plans to increase its percentage of plastic re-use to 20 percent by 2030 and expects to further contribute to environmental protection by establishing and activating a “Virtuous Recycling Loop” to minimize climate impact when disposing of vehicles.
The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization that develops and scales technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. They aim to achieve this goal by taking a two-pronged approach: stemming the inflow via rivers and cleaning up what has already accumulated in the ocean. For the latter, The Ocean Cleanup is developing large-scale systems to efficiently concentrate the plastic for periodic removal. This plastic is tracked and traced through DNV’s chain of custody model to certify claims of origin when recycling it into new products. To curb the tide via rivers, The Ocean Cleanup has developed Interceptor™ Solutions to halt and extract riverine plastic before it reaches the ocean. Founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat, The Ocean Cleanup now employs a broadly multi-disciplined team of approximately 100. The foundation is headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
