Our work in the Maldives

TO TRANSFORM PLASTIC WASTE INTO CLEAN WAVES SUNGLASSES AND OTHER OCEAN PLASTIC® PRODUCTS, PARLEY HAS CREATED A VAST, INTER-ISLAND NETWORK THROUGHOUT THE MALDIVES. HERE’S HOW IT WORKS.

As another perfect day dawns in the southern Maldives, a small boat prepares to set out for the island of Kondey in the Huvadhu Atoll. Onboard are the usual basic supplies, some students returning from an overnight camping trip – and a large white Parley silo bag full of plastic bottles. Inter-island boats like this are the lifeblood of the Maldives, and there are many others setting out on this calm, sunny morning.

Seen from high above, they form a delicate web of little white wakes amid the endless blue – a vast string of connections between the thousands of tiny islands and crystalline atolls that make up this ocean-bound country. While modern, minimalist resorts and cutting-edge underwater restaurants cater to visitors from overseas, the day-to-day world of the Maldives is one of endless stretches of open water that must be crossed. Getting supplies in and everything else off each island is a big logistical challenge, and tackling plastic waste adds another dimension.

Every year, visiting tourists and the local economy in the Maldives create over 365,000 tons of solid waste. If it’s not managed, plastic pollution contaminates local ecosystems and leaks into the oceans – threatening both marine life and local community health.⁠⁠

Over the last decade, Parley Maldives has worked to build connections and collection networks up and down this vast island chain – from the island of Kelaa in the far north to Thinadhoo in the south. Across the 500 or so miles in between, we’ve worked with local councils, island governments, school groups, luxury resorts and local fisherman to build a vast infrastructure to remove plastic from paradise.

Once collected, the marine plastic debris, PET water bottles and polyamide fishing nets are taken back to a central location to be cleaned, packaged into bales and shipped by boat to Malé and eventually on to Taiwan then Italy for final processing and crafting into products like your Clean Waves sunglasses. The entire operation marks a world’s first for plastic collection and upcycling – a nationwide system and global supply chain which removes plastic from an island nation where it might other end up as pollution.

Working long-term with the Republic of the Maldives, Parley is pioneering the Future Island Nation concept – a blueprint for global change. Collaborating with government institutions, members of industry, NGOs, schools, resorts, volunteers and our global Ambassador network, we are implementing the Parley AIR Strategy on inhabited and uninhabited islands throughout the country.

As our work progresses, we’ll bring you the latest updates from the islands. If you have a pair of Clean Waves sunglasses, be sure to activate your coordinates for personalized updates from the place you support.