Sea2see Foundation, the Non-Profit organisation behind the pioneering ‘seastainable’ eyewear brand Sea2see has broadened its waste collection and clean-up activities in Ghana in 2022 in a bid to step up its direct action and impact in the region, to protect the marine environment and eliminate marine waste. The Foundation is operating in Ghana where marine plastic pollution still needs to be radically reduced. The initial clean-up program by the Sea2see Foundation has concentrated on waste management and the removal of marine waste from beaches, lakes and rivers and involves local men and women who receive a new source of income for the work.
The Foundation has established 20 sites for waste collection, with optimised logistics, putting in place 20 reps who are employed to manage and run the Sea2see project across the country.
An initiative via the local radio advises locals where they can leave waste and old fishing nets, and arranges for them to bring their bags to be sold - a Sea2see agent will control and weigh the waste and pay them. The only “seastainable” eyewear label in the optical industry to run its own non-profit organization side by side its eyewear brand, the Foundation has implemented a program to collect the waste plastic from the marine environment (sea, beaches, rivers and coastal environments) recycling it into raw UPSEA™ PLAST pellets – giving it a second life. 
 
 

This material can be used to produce other products, such as Sea2see’s colorful stylish eyewear collections. Currently, a waste collection of 350-400 tons a year is underway via the Foundation, of which approximately 300 tons is valuable and can be upcycled for the UPSEA™ PLAST. “With 1m3 (1000kg / 1 Ton) of recycled material we produce an average of 35.000 frames – and we only used about 5000 kg last year – something quite insignificant in the face of the climate emergency” explains Francois van den Abeele, Founder Sea2see. “Our Foundation enables us to collect more than 250 m3/ 250.000 kg per year in Ghana and this is how we will deploy in other parts of the world such as the Cameroons, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, and the Philippines.”
Van den Abeele returned to Africa in August 2022, to expand the collection clean-up programs that he has developed since 2016. Van den Abeele also spent several days with the team behind PACODEP / FREETHESLAVES, an NGO which Sea2see has collaborated with since 2019. The Foundation is investing in the education program for children rescued from slavery in the fishing industry.

www.sea2seefoundation.org
www.sea2see.org