One Earth One Ocean
German nonprofit that builds its own waste-collecting boats and runs local collection and sorting teams to clear plastic from rivers, harbours and coasts.
One Earth One Ocean (OEOO) was founded in 2011 by Günther Bonin, a Munich IT entrepreneur and lifelong sailor who kept finding plastic in the most remote places he sailed. Its “maritime garbage collection” concept pairs purpose-built boats with sorting and recycling on shore.
The fleet includes the small SeeHamster catamarans for inland waters, the SeeKuh collection vessel used on the Baltic and in Hong Kong, the solar catamaran Circular Explorer, and the SeeElefant, a converted freighter in development that will recycle up to about 60,000 tonnes of plastic a year on board; its concept won Germany’s Federal Ecodesign Award. OEOO employs fairly paid local crews and sorting teams in its international project countries, including Cambodia and Brazil.