Reducing the quantity of ocean-bound plastic in the Caribbean and the Western Hemisphere is the goal of a joint venture formed by US-based firms 4G Recycling (Deerfield Beach, Florida, www.4grecycling.com) a recycling and waste management company, and AE Global (Miami, Florida, www.aegpkg.com) an end-to-end packaging solutions company.

The joint venture company, Ocean Recovery Group (ORG, Deerfield, Florida; www.oceanrecoverygroup.com) combines their extensive knowledge in the recycling and packaging industries with practical, sustainable, and scalable solutions to address the global plastic waste crisis and reduce the need for virgin plastics for product production, ORG president Zachary Kirstein said.

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ORG plans to establish its initial processing operations in La Vega, the Dominican Republic, a country where less than 8% of plastics are recycled, potentially leaving 92% ocean-bound to impact waters both off the US coast and across the globe, the company said. The group has partnered with local processer Next Generation Latin America to construct a plant for collecting, cleaning, recycling, sorting, baling, and selling the recovered plastics to re-processors to make plastic pellets. The plant is expected to be fully operational by March 2022.