¡Hola México! #tide sets foot on the American continent

#tide goes Mexico. We are expanding our operations to the American continent through a partnership with Menos Plástico es Fantástico. The non-profit organization has been active for several years in Mahahual, in the south of the Yucatán Peninsula, in order to tackle the increasing burden of plastic waste. The magnificent Costa Maya, also popular with tourists, has a fragile ecosystem consisting of Mangroves, Sandy Beaches & the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef and is greatly affected by human waste. Plastic waste washes up on shore daily by marine currents affecting local fauna and flora.

Menos Plástico es Fantástico (MPEF) is fully committed to address this issue and protect the environment. Two years ago, the organization opened the Sandy Turtle Camp to examine and protect two turtle species that come to nest on this 7-kilometer stretch of the coast from Puerto Angel to Punta Herradura: the loggerhead and the green turtles. Since this fall, we have been supporting their activities by enabling regular cleanups of the beaches and mangroves as well as the conservation work executed by a caretaker at the Sandy Turtle Camp.

The success of the work at the Turtle Camp is impressive: In a study that was conducted by MPES in 2018 in a section of 200 meters of beach in Punta Herradura, only one turtle nest was found that season. After continuous cleanups this number has increased to 24 nests in the same section, proving that removing plastic waste in beach clean ups improves the turtle nesting statistics. This caretaking work makes sure, that the baby sea turtles can leave their nests once they have hatched.

“Plastic pollution causes a real threat to the turtles, and at #tide we made it our mission to preserve their habitats through this wonderful project led by Menos Plástico es Fantástico”, says Marc Krebs, #tide's co-Founder.

Our Founder Thomas Schori adds: "When we met them for the first time in spring 2022 it felt like a perfect match: They are activists and willing to fight plastic pollution – we are able to support them with our business experience."

Ana Del Pilar Antillanca, one of the founders of the MPEF in Mahahual, says: “We are happy to receive support from #tide for our turtle conservation program as well as for the cleanups. Throughout the year, we welcome volunteers from different countries who come to support our research and documentation of the impact of plastic pollution. We continue to search solutions for the plastic waste that arrives on our pristine coastline together with #tide.”

The Mexican organization has been looking for a solution to give waste a value for some time. With the support of #tide’s network this will become possible. "We have set ourselves the goal of being active on all continents by 2025," Thomas Schori says, he adds:

“Plastic polluting the oceans is a global problem which we want to solve with local partners. It’s all about partnerships.” Thomas Schori

We have found new distribution partners in Brazil, Colombia and the USA. Mexico is planned to become a hub to connect the dots. A warehouse in the border city Laredo has just been established in order to serve the North American market with #tide ocean material.

Earlier this year, we opened up to the japanese market, with traditional company Sanyo Trading taking over the distribution of #tide ocean material in Japan. An addition to the existing hubs in Thailand and Hong Kong.