RiverRecycle
Finnish company that installs river cleaning systems on heavily polluted rivers and turns the collected plastic into building boards, creating local jobs.
RiverRecycle was founded in Helsinki in 2019 by Anssi Mikola after he read that most ocean plastic arrives through about a thousand rivers. Its model has three phases: stop floating plastic with river cleaning systems, add a recycling operation that gives low-value plastic a market, then move collection onto land so less plastic reaches the river in the first place.
Its recycled product is a plastic board that can replace plywood for formwork, shelters, schools and furniture. RiverRecycle has worked in Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Bangladesh and Ghana, and was named to the Top 10 of 100 Projects in 100 Countries.