Tames Rietdijk, Ocean Cleanup, ridding oceans and rivers of plastic

We are back for another great interview in our Entelechy Series   In today’s episode, we chat with Tames Rietjek.

Tames is an accomplished C-Level Executive with expertise and proven successes in financial markets, sustainability performance, financial crime prevention, stakeholder management, and business data science.  Currently, Tames is the Business Development at Ocean Cleanup, a company whose mission is to rid the oceans of plastic.

He was first involved with environmental impact when he developed and launched an exchange in carbon emission rights, and carbon credits under the Kyoto protocol. Under this project, they were cleaning up dirty air, also known as the abusive consequences of economic development. The project was intended to have countries share the burden of the cost of global warming. However, the market on the Kyoto protocol was flooded with financial crime which took away the basis of trust in the carbon credit itself. It was during a raid by the national security agencies at the Euro exchanges in carbon credits who were investigating the number of criminal transactions that were facilitated by those exchanges. Tames was responsible for financial crime prevention and regulatory compliance and risk management of the Exchange, which proved to be the one where they could not find any criminal transaction. 

There are about 30,000 to 35,000 rivers in the world. But only about 1000  rivers are responsible for 80% to 85% of the plastic that reaches the ocean. Most of these rivers are located in Southeast Asia & Central and South America. This already reduces the problem to very specific geographic areas.

Oceans cleanup believes that by taking one step at a time,  we could get rid of all the legacy plastic that’s in the ocean. The journey started by involving a very scientific and technology-driven approach by first identifying the problem and running a few pilot projects to see what technology and what approach would serve the solution best. 

The ocean is filled with legacy plastics because of a lack of filtered systems from when the plastic is consumed to when it ends up in the ocean.  

Tames and his team are now deploying river technology solutions that catch plastic or catch trash before it reaches the ocean. So to not only take out the legacy plastic but also make sure that the tap is closed and it doesn't continue to grow.

When it comes to leading a team working on trying to find solutions in search of a complex project, a lot of team dynamics come into play.  As a leader, the organization itself is spending a lot of time and effort to facilitate that psychological safety. People are encouraged to speak up. We have a lot of group meetings. We share a lot of the knowledge internally and everyone's invited to chip in their, 2 cents. 

In summary, the way to effect this change is to change the mindset of people and the society as a whole.

You can reach out to Tames on:

Website: theoceancleanup.com

LinkedIn:  Tames Rietdjik

Facebook: Theoceancleanup

Instagram: Theoceancleanup

Tames Rietdijk

Tames Rietdijk, 55 years old, with a background in sustainable banking and finance, supported by technology services, in an international, B2B context. Solid knowledge of financial accounting, product management and trading mechanisms. My 35-year career includes the launch of the trading platform in carbon emission rights and a solution provider for financial crime prevention as a CEO/co-founder. Currently the Head of Business Development for the Ocean Cleanup, where our mission is to rid to oceans and rivers of plastics.

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