A big idea to slow massive, incalculable, global flows of plastic.
By Suzette Mehler and Jim LeVine, Ph.D.
Plastic is in the hands of nearly 8 billion people who release a little every day causing planetary scale pollution. Microplastic inhalation, ingestion and chemical leaching threatens ecosystems, the food web, animal health, and human well being. These consequences will intensify without a solution. In 2020, more than 23 scientists concluded all current interventions-- reduce, reuse, and recycle as guideposts for producers and consumers--do not go far enough (Lau et al.; Borelle et al.) and called on the private sector for help. In 2014, we set out to solve this conundrum.
After a decade of research, we believe this is a human herd problem where plastic release has been normalized during "two" specific points in the product lifecycle, and arguably causing the greatest source of leakage on Earth. We developed a new 'ideal norm' to counter the 'release norm.' We developed a high-up strategy to globalize the ideal norm using marketing strategies of companies like Apple. This level of research and distribution could change behaviors in mass to slow plastic pollution.
Understanding consumer leanings to choose convenience over environment, our solution is designed to fit into people's lifestyles with ease of action, clear directives, and available in the mass market, to include: new media messaging, new product innovations, streaming docuseries (written by our Chief Science Officer), licensing, and co-branding partnerships.
Our solution catapults over anti-littering as we propose a scaled strategy to disrupt environmental pollution from not only macro debris, but also consumer-based micro and nano-sized plastic resulting from an array of sources, including synthetic garments to home-improvement projects. We cannot share specific details to protect the project, but what we propose is not a part of plastic pollution discourse--it is also not anti-littering, not the 3'Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), and not disruptive to industries; we leave these endeavors to other initiatives.
To achieve greatest success, we propose to assemble a world-class team of advisors, marketers, sociologists, scientists, geographers, engineers, manufacturers, aerial filmmakers, partners, and experienced leadership.
In September, 2025, we formed a C Corp named, World Harmoni Corporation (WHC). As a private-sector, for-profit endeavor, our business model is financially self-sustaining, and can freely access global markets in a non-disruptive, business-friendly approach. We feel confident in our research and path forward as an environmental impact corporation, and expect significant support by investors and partners. Details of the project are proprietary and we will share them with key interested parties. If you can contribute, please contact us.
If implemented, our plan could result in lowering cleanup costs, reduce future healthcare costs, impacts to industries, help ocean cleanup operations gain ground (no pun intended), while simultaneously accelerating fruition of the Circularity framework. And, it could also mean cleaner beaches!
Plastic pollution has a growing body of research documenting harms and its insidious reach into ecosystems. Reviewing viable scenarios to solve plastic pollution, even with aggressive measures such as Circularity, scientists in two 2020 studies forecast annual plastic emissions will increase to 53 million MT by 2030 (Borelle et al., 2020) and 710 million M.T. of cumulative plastic will enter all ecosystems by 2040 (Lau et al., 2020); both studies call for an urgent response from the private sector to employ an economical solution.
The challenges faced by governments and non-profit organizations in addressing plastic pollution are multifaceted and complex, to include:
The Intersection Point: Our proposed paradigm offers a middle-ground solution that satisfies environmentalists and business, with the potential to slow plastic emissions to reduce cumulative plastic buildup as Circularity comes to fruition. We identified an intersection point for the ideal strategy that could slow global plastic pollution.
Project benefits include:
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