Ocean Material: How Toni’s love for the ocean grew into a circular economy business

For much than 30 years, the water has been Toni Kienberger’s happy place. But by astir 2018, the beaches he visited and the waters he dove successful were progressively littered pinch integrative waste. 

His flight had go the tract of a problem he couldn’t ignore.

Determined to do thing astir it, Toni began organizing formation and stream clean-ups, first successful Hong Kong and later successful Indonesia and the Philippines. The events brought communities together and near coastlines visibly cleaner, but the effect seldom lasted.

“Picking up discarded is important, but it does not lick the strategy down it,” Toni says. That thought yet led him to recovered Ocean Material, which he has led arsenic CEO ever since.

Building the skills earlier the mission 

Long earlier the formation clean-ups he initiated, Toni grew up successful Germany, studied business management successful Munich, and started his profession pinch manner brands successful the textile industry, wherever he was first exposed to materials arsenic a business. 

Then, a occupation opportunity brought him to Hong Kong, a metropolis he describes arsenic fascinating for its operation of greenish countryside and sparkling skyline. For years, Toni worked crossed Hong Kong and China successful IoT, wearable technology, and the watch manufacture earlier founding his ain invention agency successful 2019.

“When I looked backmost astatine my 20 aliases 25 years of acquisition and the skills I’d picked up, it each led maine to do thing for the water wherever I could usage everything I’d learned.”

Looking beyond water clean-ups

In 2020, Toni launched Ocean Material successful Hong Kong arsenic a proviso concatenation program. It connects brands, recyclers, and manufacturers pinch materials collected from coastlines, helping move discarded discarded into caller products ranging from beverage crates and logistics pallets to strollers and kickboards.

It was a awesome measurement forward, but he yet realized that not each recycled merchandise creates the aforesaid impact. Toni points to beverage crates arsenic 1 of the strongest examples of information design. Built to beryllium reused for years earlier being recycled into caller crates, they create greater semipermanent worth than galore products made erstwhile and thrown away.

The proviso concatenation solved 1 portion of the problem, but not the hardest one. Much of the integrative collected during clean-ups is technically recyclable, yet not economically viable. 

According to Toni, the costs of collecting, sorting, and processing mixed plastics often exceeds their value, meaning overmuch of it still ends up successful landfill aliases incineration.

“It’s not capable to collect. It’s not capable to recycle alone, and not only the easy materials, because that is simply a truth successful our industry,” Toni says. “People are each fighting for the aforesaid easy-to-recycle materials.”

Over the past fewer years, alternatively of accepting that limitation, Ocean Material has expanded beyond its domiciled arsenic a proviso concatenation program.

Together pinch exertion and investigation partners, the institution is helping commercialize a patented, energy-efficient process that transforms complex, contaminated, and low-value integrative discarded into a lightweight timber substitute for applications specified arsenic logistics pallets and impermanent building materials. 

A prototype instrumentality is already running, and the first industrial-scale instrumentality is successful development.

That broader attack has opened caller opportunities. One illustration is simply a task successful business pinch Oceanic Environmental Cables (OEC) to retrieve and create a caller information worldly watercourse from retired subsea connection cables successful the Mediterranean Sea.

A mini team, a wide network

Today, Toni is based betwixt Hamburg and Vienna, while Ocean Material’s operations proceed to span Europe and Hong Kong.

Despite its world reach, Ocean Material remains a thin operation. Its halfway squad consists of conscionable 5 people, but it’s supported by a wider web of consultants, engineers, ineligible advisors, and volunteers.

The institution besides useful pinch assemblage and investigation partners successful Hamburg, including Inspire AG, a investigation institute intimately connected to ETH Zurich.

While Ocean Material is commercially structured, a important portion of its activity still carries a beardown effect and acquisition component. Funding comes from a operation of commercialized revenue, outer funding, and donations. 

Through this network, the institution operates crossed aggregate countries, has redirected much than 10,000 tons of worldly into information pathways, has supported hundreds of acquisition workshops and clean-ups, and has helped create much than 120 jobs and income opportunities successful discarded collection, sorting, and recycling.

Building spot earlier the handshake

Most group first observe Ocean Material done LinkedIn, manufacture events, media coverage, aliases hunt earlier visiting the company’s website to validate what they’ve learned. 

“People should quickly understand what you do, why it matters, who is down it, and why they tin spot you,” Toni notes.

Getting the instauration correct for the company’s website took immoderate proceedings and error. After 2 hosting providers didn’t activity out, Toni compared the remaining options himself. 

“I did aggravated research, and from each the services – the pros and cons, and the value – Hostinger was really number one. So we went pinch it,” he recalls.

Now, arsenic the business evolves beyond its original proviso concatenation program, the website is evolving arsenic well. Toni is rebuilding the tract to amended bespeak Ocean Material’s increasing attraction connected materials, technology, and biology impact.

Although astir of the improvement is handled by an outer developer, Toni says, “Hostinger is very user-friendly, moreover for personification for illustration maine who is not an IT expert. I tin hole mini things myself done the dashboard without needing to impact our web developer each azygous time.”

Keeping the momentum going

Eight years aft organizing his first formation clean-ups, Toni nary longer measures occurrence by really overmuch discarded is collected successful a day. Instead, he’s focused connected building systems that support materials successful circulation agelong aft the clean-up ends.

That attack is now moving into its adjacent phase. Together pinch its partners, Ocean Material is moving connected the first industrial-scale instrumentality for the timber-substitute process, and the Mediterranean cable-recovery cognition is group to statesman this year.

“It’s really fun. I ne'er regret doing precisely what I do,” Toni says pinch a smile.