John Keells Group, Pearl Protectors collect over 1 MT of plastic waste from seabeds

Plasticcycle, the social entrepreneurship project of the John Keells Group and The Pearl Protectors (TPP), held the official partnership ceremony of the “Cleaner Seabeds for Sri Lanka Expedition” on January 30, 2024.

The ceremony was aligned with the 21st dive at the Palagala North Reef in Dehiwala and included an awareness session for the invitees about the diving and clean-up process, safety standards maintained by the PADI-certified volunteer divers, the audit done once waste is collected, the upcycling and recycling efforts made for collected plastic waste and the positive impact achieved thus far through the partnership.

The invitees included officials from the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA), Central Environmental Authority (CEA), Ministry of Environment, and the Department of Wildlife Conservation along with representatives from some of Plasticcycle’s other private sector partners Enviro, Cleantech, Clean Cities, and Blue Oceans Programme (CCBO), Research Triangle Institute and Eco Spindles.

Speaking on the partnership, Nisreen Rehmanjee, Executive Vice President John Keells Group and Head of Corporate Finance, Group Tax & Social Entrepreneurship said “Since partnering with the Pearl Protectors in April 2023, we have completed 21 dives, which has resulted in collecting over 1230kgs of plastic waste such as fishing nets & other ghost gear and plastic bags

etc. from the coral reefs in the Trincomalee, Mannar, and Colombo districts alone. Partnering in this expedition has allowed the volunteer divers in John Keells to be a part of protecting our precious marine ecosystems as well.”

Plasticcycle’, is the John Keells Group’s social Entrepreneurship project which was launched in 2017 with the vision of being a catalyst in significantly reducing plastic pollution in Sri Lanka.