A key question in ocean plastics: ‘How in the world do you clean that up?'

And having been out there, having seen the damage caused by ocean plastic, damage that has already happened and that is difficult to manage, she understands the importance of building awareness. The circular economy is one of the key solutions to ocean plastic, she emphasized.

"Ocean plastic is almost the last frontier. It is where plastic ends up when we don't treat it as material that has value. For Tomra, it was important to us to be part of that," she said.

Tomra is engaged in building machines and technology, but the company is equally engaged in what Berg calls "connecting the dots" for recyclers.

"To encourage and reinforce that positive behavior and those habits that we know have an effect on bringing plastic material back into the closed loop," she said.

To that end, however, Tomra needed to understand the problem, as "if you don't understand the problem, your solution is going to be off,'" she said.

In a bid to learn more, Tomra has partnered with researchers and organizations studying ocean plastic, and has also participated in various ocean plastic upcycling projects to understand more about the supply of ocean plastics — an aspect of interest to brand owners.

"If we were to integrate ocean plastics into supply chains, what does it look like, what can we expect? I have also worked in various other upcycling plastic recycling projects, which were not with ocean plastic. These are one step up the value chain: we still control the material somewhat. It hasn't gone completely astray as it does with ocean plastics, but it is a little further up, where you really maintain that quality and the value of the material.

"So for us it is really about learning in a lot of different ways — and integrating this knowledge back into our work and sharing it within the industry and with the public as much as we can," she explained.

Is integrating ocean plastic into the supply chain a realistic option?

"I wouldn't say integrating ocean plastic into value chains in a big way is a goal in itself or something we work towards, as it will be expensive and not the most efficient way to get at the problem. There are many things we can do that are a lot further up the value chain that will have a lot more impact," Berg said.

How We Can Keep Plastics Out of Our Ocean | National Geographic