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David Katz: Revealing the real value of plastic waste
(Courtesy of Best Life/Rudolf Santana )If there is someone who understands the real worth of plastic, Canadian entrepreneur David Katz is that person
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(Courtesy of Best Life/Rudolf Santana )
If there is someone who understands the real worth of plastic, Canadian entrepreneur David Katz is that person.
He finds plastic to be more than just waste, but a valuable commodity that people may have lost sight of the value of.
'They think that plastic is worthless, but it actually has a high price. If there's a liter of gasoline in the middle of the road, people will pick it up because it's valuable. Plastic is still gasoline in different shape, but they don't know. So it's about finding the value.'
'Revealing the value in plastic is part of the mission of Plastic Bank,' he told The Jakarta Post during his recent visit to Jakarta.
Katz is the co-founder of the Vancouver-based Plastic Bank, a company that aims to reveal the value in plastic by allowing individuals to exchange plastic they have collected with things they can sell again, or giving microfinance loans and access to the company's 3D printer services.
In the end, it opens doors for the poor to learn to be entrepreneurs and helps them get out of poverty.
Plastic Bank will then recycle the plastic in its facilities, offering it to corporations to use the recycled plastic, which is called Social Plastic.
'It's really creating a brand around the story; it's about putting as much story in the plastic as possible and we ultimately have a global trade market, and it's plastic that's been harvested from the environment by the disadvantaged for the betterment of everyone,' Katz said.
Such a system has been operating well in the company's first project in Peru where they work with a local NGO that already has a solid relationship with waste pickers.
Plastic Bank also provides connections with the purchaser of the plastic, providing them price consistency.
The idea to establish Plastic Bank crossed Katz's mind during a holiday in the Philippines where he witnessed the amount of plastic entering the ocean through Manila harbor.
'I was looking at the ocean in Manila and
I saw a catastrophe. There have been many discussions about waste in the ocean, but I think the most important thing is to keep the plastic from entering the ocean.'
Motivated to change that, he teamed up with his friend Shaun Frankson to form Plastic Bank in 2013.
As a businessman, Katz likes to see things from the business side, aiming to reveal the business solutions to poverty and environmental problems.
He acknowledged that although Plastic Bank's goal was to help the environment and reduce poverty, he was still a businessman who also looked for profits in what he does.
'I'm making an investment in the company, but the whole intention is to be very profitable. And I think it's a win-win strategy here, serving the poor and the environment, but there's also money in it,' he said.
Plastic Bank has an operational branch in Peru, and an almost-ready branch in Bogota. He has also identified several other places to go to, including the Philippines, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
'I know for sure that I want to be in places where there's lots of poverty and lots of people because that means lots of plastic.'
Born in Winnipeg but raised in Vancouver, Canada, the 46-year-old Katz has always been interested in doing business since he was eight. His first business project was a landscaping business with his brother.
'We had at home the lawn mower, and all of the tools, and we thought of doing the business. It turned out that my brother did the business and I did all the work, so then I learned about equal partnership,'
he said, laughing.
Katz never went to business school ' instead he learned about business by doing. He also learned a lot from his father who owned a small hotel. He's read at least one business book a week for the last seven years.
On his journey of becoming a successful businessman, he understood that he must first experience failure before success.
'When you fail, that's when you learn your way to success. I've been through that 10 times, I've had restaurant for almost 10 years, I was into commercial business equipment, and I finally set up a technology company,' he said.
Having been able to flourish with his technology company, Nero Global Tracking, Katz learned that there was something else that required his capacity and tenacity as a businessman ' plastic waste.
'I feel passionate about Plastic Bank; I feel there's an opportunity, there's a brand in it somehow,' the father of three said.
His work in Plastic Bank has been recognized by many, being featured in many noted international publications.
As a member of Entrepreneur Organization ' a worldwide group of over 7,500 presidents of business ' he was recently awarded Global Citizen of the Year by the organization.
The prize was the opportunity to visit and study a country, and he chose Indonesia.
During his visit to Jakarta, he made quick observations of waste problems in the capital and realized that there was an environmental catastrophe happening.
'I've been doing some research to understand the community here. It's a quick visit but I'll be back,
I think I've made enough connections.'
