Rob Kaplan is the founder and CEO of Circulate Capital. They’re an investment firm focused on financing companies, projects and technologies that prevents plastic pollution here in Southeast Asia. He has been investing in corporate supply chains and waste recycling, in the circular economy for about 15 years. He used to lead sustainable initiatives in the beverage industry in retail and Walmart and founded Circulate Capital last year to take on this challenge in Southeast Asia. Rob Kaplan started Circulate Capital because the research had found that more than half of the plastic that gets into the ocean comes from Southeast Asia. Right now, there are over 150 million tonnes of plastic in the oceans. And that increases 8 million tonnes every year. That’s the same as a garbage truck full of plastic backing up to the ocean and dumping it in every minute. So, they know that if they can invest in these types of solution, they can make a huge impact here.
Their scope is very much focused on the same countries that have the greatest needs, so they’re investing in Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and India. Because these are all countries that have been identified leaking a lot of plastics into the ocean, but they’re also the ones where investment can make the biggest differences.
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