In late April, a coalition of outdoor enthusiasts, industry-leading brands, and packaging suppliers announced the launch of a global effort to create, scale, and advocate for sustainable packaging solutions to help eliminate plastic pollution from the world’s oceans, lakes, and rivers. An initiative of Atlantic Packaging, A New Earth Project has been established as a catalyst to build awareness, increase education and inspire action. The project brings together the voices of ocean and water advocacy and the global supply chain to solve these problems while providing sustainable packaging solutions for brands of all sizes through its website
According to Atlantic Packaging, A New Earth Project started as a conversation between surfers on the North Shore of Oahu and has grown into a robust movement to raise awareness of and find critical solutions to address the increasing levels of plastic pollution in global waterways. With a team built by founder Wes Carter, president and third-generation leader of Atlantic Packaging, the initiative is supported by veterans from the surf, outdoor, media, and packaging industries.
“The plastic pollution problem is personal for me. I've witnessed it in my own life and have only seen it get worse. After hearing well-known surfers share their personal stories of how they’ve observed the rise in plastic pollution in the oceans, there was a big moment when I realized a lot of the plastic waste was coming from packaging, a supply chain that I’m part of,” says Carter. “This was the catalyst for A New Earth Project and is at the heart of this strategic collaboration. Atlantic Packaging has a seat at the table with the largest consumer product companies in the world. We are in a unique position of having both the ability, and what I believe is the responsibility, to drive the changes that must occur.”
The New Earth-approved catalog features a collection of packaging products and capabilities adhering to key sustainability criteria.
“We have been shipping so many boards directly to peoples’ homes, and the amount of plastic we were using was overwhelming; we knew this was a big issue and that we had to do something about it,” sayx Jon Pyzel, founder of Pyzel Surfboards. “When the team at A New Earth Project came back with the S3, it gave us the ability to remove all single-use plastic from our surfboard shipping system and replace it with a fully curbside-recyclable option. This shift makes our packaging a meaningful brand attribute and signals to our customers that we are doing our part to be more sustainable.”
The launch of A New Earth Project is supported by story-driven programming chronicling the challenges that global waters face, and the people, brands, and organizations who are collaborating to find solutions. Journey to a New Earth is an eight-episode series that aired on Earth Day on Outside TV and FUEL TV. This is the first of multiple series in development is designed to raise awareness about the environmental impacts generated by packaging that ends up in the world’s waterways, shared through the first-hand accounts of some of the most recognizable surfers in the world. The following day, Quiksilver and A New Earth Project teamed up to present the 2022 US Board Riders National Championship at Lower Trestles, airing live on FUEL TV in more than 130 countries.
A New Earth Project also announced its first class of global advocates, which includes professional surfers Kai Lenny, Vaihiti Mahana, Carlos Munoz, and Koa Smith.
