The CEO of a Canadian plastic-for-currency enterprise met with a top Catholic official in Vatican City on Wednesday, where he pitched the Catholic Church on methods for reducing plastic waste in the ocean while helping the world鈥檚 poor.
Plastic Bank founder and CEO David Katz says the meeting was all about 鈥減lanting a seed鈥� with the Vatican, in hopes of developing a future partnership between his organization and the Roman Catholic Church.
鈥淭oday really was historic. I am confident that we changed the course of the planet,鈥� Katz told CTVNews.ca from Rome.
碍补迟锄鈥檚 is a social enterprise that treats plastic waste as currency at special convenience stores set up in impoverished countries. The Plastic Bank offers goods and services at above-market value in exchange for discarded plastic, then recycles that plastic and re-sells it to manufacturing companies for a profit.
Katz says the whole operation is designed to reduce the tremendous amount of environmentally harmful plastic waste that winds up in the world鈥檚 oceans, where it essentially lasts forever and kills billions of marine animals over the years.
He says it makes more sense to collect recyclable plastic before it winds up in the ocean, because 鈥渢he last thing the world needs to do is clean the ocean.鈥�
It鈥檚 also set up to specifically target areas of high poverty and plastic pollution, in an effort to generate both social and environmental benefit.
鈥淲e put the value of the material in the hands of the collector,鈥� Katz said.
Katz met Wednesday with Cardinal Peter Turkson, the leader of the Vatican Dicastery on Integral Human Development. Katz said the cardinal was receptive to the idea of expanding the recycling program to churches across the planet.
The next step, Katz said, is reaching out to leaders within the Islamic community.
鈥淚 have not yet met a faith that does not exhibit a rudimentary, philosophical knowing that all people need to be in the service of the poor and the planet,鈥� he said.
Wednesday鈥檚 meeting marks the high point of a whirlwind European tour for Katz, who was in Bonn, Germany last week for the United Nations鈥� COP23 summit on the environment. Katz was at the conference.
Katz has spent the last few days since the conference in Vatican City, where he attended Sunday mass and met with the leaders of various orders ahead of his audience with the Pope. He says he spoke to the leaders of the Gregorian, Franciscan and Jesuit groups this week, and 鈥渕oved them to tears鈥� in describing the Plastic Bank鈥檚 work.
He added that he was shocked to see how wasteful Vatican City itself was. 鈥淭he Vatican鈥� is probably the least environmentally friendly place I鈥檝e been to. It鈥檚 a disaster,鈥� he said. 鈥淣o one separates anything. There鈥檚 no recycling bins.鈥�
Katz hailed Pope Francis for taking a more active stance on protecting the environment than his predecessors. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e showing up a little bit late, quite honestly,鈥� he said.
