GOT BAG founder Benjamin Mandos has been sailing the seas with his father since he was a child. The fascination has remained to this day. In 2016 he founded GOT BAG – with the aim of doing something meaningful so that less plastic ends up in the oceans. “Of course, a rucksack fits well symbolically – because it shows that we all have to shoulder the great task of ensuring the water quality for the future of flora and fauna,” says Benjamin Mandos. The fan community of the functional, easy-care backpacks with the minimalist, timeless design is growing. And the ROLLTOP has also established itself as the ideal all-rounder.
Why do we have to act now and what is your mission?
We want to help rid the oceans of plastic waste. That’s why we collect plastic in all shapes and forms in our clean-up programs, instead of just the easily recyclable parts – such as PET bottles. We have set up our own clean-up program in Indonesia, which local fishermen use to collect plastic as bycatch from the sea. We are now also collecting plastic waste on land to prevent it from getting into the sea in the first place. In this way, we can open up ever larger areas with our collection points. Since people are given the opportunity to recycle locally and basic structures for waste management are created, we take preventive action to prevent improperly disposed plastic waste from threatening the sea in the long term. In this way we create concrete added value: Beaches become cleaner, waste becomes recyclable and the environmental awareness of everyone involved changes for the better.
What projects is GOT BAG pursuing? Keywords: Sea Shepherd and Coral Gardeners
In the meantime we have a number of projects with cooperation partners: we have been able to get them off the ground. We are very proud of this, because we can only achieve great things together. For example, we work together with Sea Shepherd, an organization that campaigns worldwide against illegal fishing and the preservation of marine habitats. With every purchase of the cooperation products, a portion of the price goes to the non-profit organization. We have also launched a product line with Coral Gardeners: With a backpack from this collab edition, you receive a Coral Adoption Card and thus support the reforestation of coral reefs.
The GOT BAG Ocean Week takes place twice a year. What does this stand for?
OCEAN WEEK is an action week around World Ocean Day, in which we want to draw more attention to the health of our oceans. Mangroves play a central role in Indonesia. Not only do they provide shelter and habitat for many creatures, they also absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide. They are also essential in preventing storm surges and floods. With the help of our customers we can plant mangroves because they support this project with a purchased GOT BAG.
What is behind the clean-up program in Indonesia?
In Indonesia, more than three million tons of plastic waste are generated every year. Around a third of this ends up in the sea at some point. [1] With up to 1.29 million tons of new sea plastic added every year, it is the country after China with the most plastic entering the sea in the world. [2] If this is tackled, this can lead to clearly visible positive changes. In order to take holistic action against plastic in the sea, we do not limit ourselves to cleaning and processing the PET portion of Ocean Impact Plastic required for the GOT BAGs. Rather, we also supply the other types of plastic collected with suitable recycling solutions. Those involved in our clean-up program have meanwhile become important multipliers on site. They communicate their knowledge about recycling and the negative effect of plastic waste on the sea and sensitize those around them to use plastic consciously. Our holistic concept is working: We are now in close contact with the local government and are looking together for long-term solutions to preserve the marine ecosystem.
What does Ocean Impact Plastic stand for?
According to our definition, ocean impact plastic is plastic waste that has been improperly disposed of due to a lack of waste management systems and is therefore either already floating in the sea or is still in coastal nature and therefore poses a risk of ending up in the oceans. We collect this plastic before it further threatens nature and in particular the oceans and destroys important habitats. Ocean Impact Plastic thus consists of plastic directly from the sea, including the mangrove regions, as well as from coastal areas. We collect the latter primarily in the delta region of the local rivers and coastal waters. Since most of the local people do not have access to a functioning waste management system, they can also hand in their plastic waste directly to our collection points.
How does plastic waste become a hip GOT BAG?
With the GOT BAG clean-up program on the north coast of Java in Indonesia, over 2,000 local participants collect plastic from coastal waters, mangrove forests and the delta region of the rivers there. The Ocean Impact Plastic collected in this way no longer poses a threat to the oceans. The PET portion of the Ocean Impact Plastic is cleaned, sorted and pressed into pellets – it forms the raw material for the GOT BAG products. The other types of plastic that have not been recyclable up to now are also fed into suitable recycling solutions. The pellets are shipped to China for production, where they are processed into strong yarn. It is further processed as a fabric for backpacks and bags, has a waterproof coating on the inside and is also water- and dirt-repellent on the outside.
What about packaging and transport: keyword circular economy?
We keep the CO2 footprint of our transports as small as possible: We transport the pellets made of Ocean Impact Plastic by ship from Indonesia to China for further processing. We are still dependent on truck transport there, but we are examining more environmentally friendly alternatives. The finished goods are transported from China to Germany and the USA by ship. We send the products to our customers worldwide with DHL GoGreen CO2-neutral in reusable and recyclable packaging made from recycled materials. Thanks to our partner 8Returns, we also process returns in a climate-neutral manner. This means: We offset all transport-related CO2 emissions that occur during shipping with CO2 credits – also for returns. These credits are used to support climate protection projects around the world.
What happens at the end of the life of a GOT BAG?
Our backpacks are mostly made from recycled materials and are particularly robust. We deliberately refrain from ever new collection cycles and pursue a timeless, minimalist design language. In addition to our two-year guarantee, we offer a spare parts service. We also take back GOT BAGs and exchange them if the functionality can no longer be guaranteed. We are already testing a sewing service for some cases and assume that we will also be able to offer a welding service in the near future. In this way we want to guarantee every GOT BAG as long a life as possible. When this is over, we will work on ways to take back our GOT BAGs, use them for other purposes, or feed components back into the cycle in the interests of the circular economy.