HP will use the recycled plastic to manufacture inkjet cartridges.
Plastic News reported that the Pittsburgh based company will start the project in Haiti as reported by The Recycler and that the project will assist in providing “health care and education” as well as “job training services”.
Thread said in an announcement that it will be partnered by Timberland, who make outdoor clothing, HP Inc. and the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and that between them $300,000 (€267,330) would be provided for funding.
The waste collectors in Haiti will benefit from the project, 300 in total, 200 of which are children who work long hours collecting plastic bottles from the “landfills, canals and streets”. Thread hope to be able to do similar projects in other countries.
Thread CEO, Ian Rosenberger, said “The very bottom of the supply chain is where people are the most vulnerable.” Team Tassy, a “Haiti based non governmental organisation” that provides “jobs, schooling and medical care” will team up with Thread and the L’Association des Collecteurs d’objet en Plastique, (ACOP), will also be part of the project as they control the waste collection centres around Port-au-Prince.
Ben Pawsey from Thread said that the poorest families in Haiti are under huge pressure for their children to work on the landfills just so that they can earn enough to survive.
A spokesman for Thread said “In Haiti, many families rely on plastic collection as a sole source of income and often face the difficult choice of involving children in this work in order to ensure the security and well-being of the family.”