Three years ago we drove in Antarctica with a car built from waste plastic. You may not have heard much from us since then. But we certainly have been busy! An update of our most recent experiments.
Do you remember this one? That is in 2018.
Three years ago, Edwin and Liesbeth and the Clean2Antarctica team traveled to the geographic South Pole with this vehicle.
They crossed endless snowfields with the Solar Voyager: an all-terrain vehicle whose core was printed from waste plastic, powered entirely by solar energy. A daring expedition to draw attention to the global plastic problem.
With success: Clean2Antarctica made the national and international press for months, including the BBC news bulletin. And it all came from an empty mushroom tray. Since then, many more experiments have emerged from our blue talisman.
Let’s keep going: because it’s a waste to waste!
The origin of Clean2Anywhere is due to that expedition. It was the first mission to draw attention to rethinking and reusing waste plastic and our own habitual behavior. From all the reactions Edwin and Liesbeth received, they knew: this is meaningful, we should do more of this!
It showed that it doesn’t matter where you go, as long as you follow the clean road. This is how they discovered their own mission to contribute to a sustainable world: ‘Let everyone discover: it’s a waste to waste!’ You can create so many beautiful things out of waste. And if you dream big enough, it’ll even take you to Antarctica.
Clean2Anywhere was born.
Building a Dutch fluitschip out of waste plastic
Time for a new experiment. Preferably so large that it is actually impossible. Edwin came up with the idea of building a 17th century ‘fluitschip’, a Dutch cargo ship of 30 meters long, completely built from waste plastic. Deadline: 2030. And to put in use, the ship will go on an emission-free trade mission to Batavia (Jakarta). It should look something like this:
Uncomfortable, isn’t? That’s exactly what we want. We dream big in order to attract as many people as possible to join our mission. We need each and every one of them, because we still have to figure out the ‘how’ of building that ship. Simply because the current recycled plastic is not yet strong enough to build on this scale.
A super exciting experiment because we still have so much to discover. But if we succeed in building such a gigantic thing from waste plastic, we provide a new building material to several industries. Take an industry as construction. In this scenario, we suddenly no longer see plastic a problem, but a huge possibility!
Construction of the first Dutch ‘werkboot’
Three years later, we now have laid a good foundation for this fluitschip. We took a first step. A small one.
Because, if you come up with an ‘unachievable’ puzzle, you naturally cut that challenge into pieces. Hence our motto: Start small, but start today. When you take such a small step, something seemingly impossible suddenly turns out to be quite achievable. Just look at the construction of our first boat, a Dutch ‘werkboot’ from waste plastic!
We started this project at the end of 2019 on a rough little peninsula in Hoorn, without electricity, running water or heating. Nice and uncomfortable, just like that first werkboot. Because this was a first experiment to experience the art of 17th century shipbuilding and plastic as a new material. An attempt to see if we could even build anything from waste plastic at all, which resembles a boat.
And… we did! The ‘Lankhorst’ was launched in the summer of 2020 and remained afloat.
Bye bye Sail: Hello Clean2Amsterdam
And then something amazing happened. Our little ship was invited by Sail Amsterdam 2020, one of the biggest international sailing events, to join the parade! Sailing in between the tallships: the smallest ship, but with the biggest impact. What a dream. And unfortunately, it stayed a dream: the pandemic hit and Sail was canceled. However disappointed we were, we turned the situation around. No Sail? Then we simply sail across the Markermeer to the IJ and create our own one-man show. Our first trade mission was born: Clean2Amsterdam.
And this – of course – was again an experiment. With Clean2Amsterdam we seek adventure and sail to the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam with sustainable cargo on board. Once again to draw attention to our mission, but also as a journey of discovery. It resulted into new connections with both sustainable entrepreneurs in Hoorn and Amsterdam. Not to engage purely in economic trade, but to act as fellows in accelerating the transition towards a circular society.
Building the 2nd werkboot with fifteen youngsters
Time for the second werkboot. With the construction of this second boat, our mission came to life even more. ‘Let everyone discover: it’s a waste to waste’. This means that everyone can participate in the construction of the ships. We found a partner in Werksaam Westfriesland, which helps people who haven’t participated in the labour market for a long time, to reintegrate into society.
And so, at the end of 2020, a team of fifteen young people started with the construction of the ‘Schelphoek’. We offer young people a place to discover their talents and find out what they like to do. Not by talking, but just by getting to work. Meanwhile, six of the fifteen young people now have a paid job, three are going back to school and the rest have made significant personal growth.
Not only did this result in a beautiful boat, it also turned out all the more that that clean road peddling is also about something meaningful. What we do is not about success or money, but about the value we create for society. A second group of young people is currently building a third workboat. See the Schelphoek here:
Clean2Amsterdam 2021 with TWO boats !
We have experienced that everything you give your attention to, grows. Despite the corona year, our fleet grew by 100 percent. Time for a second Clean2Amsterdam! Last august we sailed with two workboats to Amsterdam, this time with a message for the Dutch construction sector: use more waste!
That is why we shipped an uncomfortably large load of scrap wood from PontMeyer and Jongeneel and bales of textiles from the recycling company Rataplan. Becasue: it’s a waste to waste!
Once again our network grew and a large number of parties joined us with whom we will carry out new experiments. We see that a lot of companies want to make their businesses more sustainable, but they simply don’t know how. With a trade mission like Clean2Amsterdam we show how it can be done.
And… we are now building houses too!
Of course the bales of wood and textiles were no coincidence. Because in the background we are working hard on a new spin-off: C2A Homes. Because why only build boats when you can also build houses from waste?
In our factory in Hoorn, our team works on the first C2A Home. Such a tiny house is built entirely from waste: scrap wood from construction, fibrillated jeans as insulation material and a foundation made from waste plastic. In this way we not only offer solutions for the waste problem, but we also address the housing shortage: building houses can also be done quickly and sustainably! Here’s a sneak peak.
We are in this together!
The beauty of all our projects and experiments lies in togetherness: we don’t do it alone. We can’t. Fortunately, we notice that almost everyone gets enthusiastic about our projects and that is exactly what we want to achieve: to inspire people and companies to start experiments themselves on the clean road towards towards a circular and inclusive society!
