How do you create a business that scales massively but also showcases your purpose and values? How do you build a company you can truly be proud of — a business that can make a huge difference in the world? This week’s guest shares his insightful business expertise and his company’s mission!
David Katz is an inspirational speaker and the Founder and CEO of The Plastic Bank, an internationally recognized solution to stop ocean plastic. The Plastic Bank is a global network of micro recycling markets that empower the poor to transcend poverty by cleaning the environment.
David has been an entrepreneur his entire life and was in charge of executing projects since he was eight years old. He came from a family of immigrants who had to be creative and entrepreneurial to make their mark in Canada.
The Plastic Bank was inspired by David’s life experiences as a youth sailing with his father. David’s father was an early adopter of GPS in the 1980s, which wasn’t readily available at that time or up to the standards of today’s GPS technology. It helped David learn how to map out where he was in the ocean at all times.
Since David grew up on the ocean and had learned about the immense and beautiful power of the sea, he was saddened when he kept seeing waves upon waves of trash float up to the shore.
David has started companies before but he was purposeless. When he came upon this cause, he knew he could create a company that was far bigger than himself. If he could only just showcase how much value each plastic item floating in the water was worth ($20-50), then there would be no more plastic left.
The Plastic Bank is its own ecosystem that reveals value in what was once viewed as waste. Plastic Bank has a chain of stores for the ultra, ultra poor where everything in the store is available to be purchased by using plastic garbage as currency. Plastic Bank is able to offer school tuition, medical insurance, wifi, and cell phone minutes, power, fuel, and food.
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