Harnessing AI to Clean up Beaches from Plastic Pellets: Signe Simonsen’s Revolutionary Vision

The Problem of Plastic Pellets and Environmental Impact

Julian Wood: Welcome to another episode of "GOTO Unscripted." We're here in lovely Amsterdam as part of the GOTO Conference series. I'm talking to Signe Simonsen, who is part of Race for Oceans. Signe Simonsen, welcome to GOTO Unscripted.

Signe Simonsen: Thank you so much.

Julian Wood: Pleasure. So, you've had an interesting journey in life, bringing it seems to be a number of passions together. So, you're an adventurous person. I do a little bit of running in my time, but it doesn't seem to be anything that you've done. Tell us about your amazing marathons all over the world in every possible place.

Signe Simonsen: The whole thing about Race for Oceans started back when I was deployed to Iraq. I worked in the Danish army and was deployed as a captain. And I worked with rebuilding projects. And so that means that most of the time, I was out in the society and I just saw how the amount of plastic and trash just increased in the lakes and rivers. It was also that time where you could take three weeks away from the area. Then I went to Thailand for diving, and I had nine dives there and all nine dives I saw plastic under the surface. But at that time, that was in 2005, there wasn't the same awareness about the ocean and how our footprint is destroying the ocean. So, that's what the foundation of Race for Oceans actually started. And then I went on quite an adventure. 

Julian Wood: So, being an adventure person, I know you're very much involved in swimming, and diving, and things like that. I mean, obviously, we all love the oceans and you just have this awareness that little bits of plastic were appearing on the ocean and then appearing on the beach. And you've, sort of, been tracing back how those plastic products are created and how they land up on the beach because people think... I know we've got the plastic cups and mugs and things that we use and maybe they fall off and land on the beach. But you're actually talking about the original bits of plastic that are created as part of the industrial process. Can you just walk us through where plastic comes from and how it lands up on the beach?

Signe Simonsen: The things that we have decided to focus on now are actually what we call plastic pellets. So, this is the raw material to create any given plastic product.

Julian Wood: So these are made then in the factory as a raw material that then goes out to things.

Signe Simonsen: Exactly. So, this has never been a product before. It didn't become a success because we lost it before it went into a product.

Julian Wood: So, is this recycled plastic or it's just made from plastic from petrochemicals?

Signe Simonsen: Exactly. This is a combination of oil, gas, and a little bit of chemistry depending on what kind of plastic type that we want to create. And we have just seen them over and over again in our activities along the coastline, not only in Denmark but also out in the world. And for me as a person, also because I have my background from the military, we won't succeed with this one with the two-finger system going out to pick one pellet at a time. So, how can we utilize technology?

Recommended talk: How a Passion for Oceans Can Utilize Synergies of Technology • Signe Simonsen • GOTO 2024

Technology Solutions and Future Plans

Julian Wood: But how do even the plastic pieces land up on the beach because they're made in a factory. You would think it would be fair... I won't say secure but fairly sort of... You're not going to just lose plastic, or does that happen?

Signe Simonsen: Exactly. So, we have a production site here and then we have another production site here. And here, we produce the plastic pellets, the raw material. And then we want to transport it over to this fabric site where they produce the plastic products.

Julian Wood: Okay, because that's the raw material and then it needs to be made into something in a separate factory.

Signe Simonsen: On this production site and then in the transport phase. So, if you have a container ship that loses a container, which contains plastic pellets, then it can go out to nature in that way. And then also over at this production site where you want to create the plastic products. So, that's like the three places where you can lose the plastic pellets and then it will go out into nature.

Julian Wood: So, it's just literally being lost. It's in a bag and the bag breaks or a container falls off a ship or something.

Signe Simonsen: For many years, this has been standard procedure to handle or mishandle the plastic pellets in this way. And what we have experienced is, when we ask our participants in our activities, then we can see that 98% of our participants, they don't know what plastic pellets are and they don't know why it ends up in nature. And we think that's a huge problem because it's difficult for people to understand this challenge, because how can you do something about something you cannot see, right? So, we have taken this into our domain now and are trying to find a solution because we know it's out there and we actually also know how to stop it. Regulations and it will bring more awareness.

Julian Wood: But there's a whole lot of plastic lying on the beach.

Signe Simonsen: Exactly.

Julian Wood: And even interestingly, just looking at the color, you can imagine there's a lot of that lying on the beach that people don't necessarily know it's plastic. If you've got very fine sand, maybe you would understand. But otherwise you would just think it's parts of some rocks or sand or some loose kind of things.

Signe Simonsen: Exactly. And that's also some of the stories that we hear from our participants because we heard one, which is a man who meets us at Bornholm. It's a small island in Denmark and on the beach there. And he says, "What are you picking up?" And we showed him a handful of plastic pellets and he was like, "Oh, that's the sand pearls. My kids were playing with those, collecting those 40 years ago."

Julian Wood: Wow, not anymore.

Signe Simonsen: So, we're standing on the same beach and this has been, you know, like ongoing things for 40 years, right? And then we have also stories going back 60 years ago from an old man who had retired. That was last year. He also came and asked us, "What are you guys doing?" And we were showing him the hand with plastic pellets and he was like, "Oh, my God, those small fuckers. I know those," because he used to work on one of the big container ships back in the '60s. So, he had seen with his own eyes how it was handled or mishandled at that time. And he said, you know, it was sailing on deck literally. Yeah.

Julian Wood: So, obviously there's a huge amount of plastic that is in the ocean, is on the beaches, that people are recognizing it. And in the future, regulation may or may not stop it. But, yeah, tell us about the technology that you developed to sort out the problem we have today.

Signe Simonsen: Yeah, exactly, because I have been on the beaches for many hours. And the place I think the best, that's actually when I can hear the ocean in one year, best in two years. But it is to see how can we take AI and then create synergy to robots and drones, because the AI can help us with identifying what is going to be picked up and the drone can help us with identify what kind of areas that needs to be cleaned up, because we want to leave the largest footprint as possible on biodiversity, and that is the drone's task. And then the robots will be used for picking up what's not going to lie in that ship.

Julian Wood: So, you literally have a drone that flies around and, sort of, maps terrain and finds places where there is beach or maybe plastic pellets.

Signe Simonsen: You could see hot spots.

Julian Wood: Okay, find hot spots and find out important places to go to. And then you literally have a robot that walks, crawls, moves across the beach and picks up the individual pellets using an AI model to recognize the difference between a plastic pellet and a piece of sand.

Signe Simonsen: Yes, that's true.

Julian Wood: Wow, is that...

Signe Simonsen: That's our mission.

Julian Wood: Wow.

Signe Simonsen: So, that's what we are aiming for. And that's due to my background from the military where I've seen what technology can help people with, especially the soldiers to keep the security. But I just see such a huge potential in combining those three technologies and take the best out of it to create a whole solution which will benefit the whole society because I don't think... This spill has been going on for the last plus 60 years. And I'm not saying that we will have clean beaches in 10 years. I think that this is something that we are going to handle for the next plus 60 years. So, this means that it will be my children, grandchildren who will withstand this challenge. So, this is also to show some light, right? Because this challenge is just so huge. It's not something that one person can but together we can do much more and we can also succeed. That is what I choose to believe in.

Julian Wood: So, I mean, people have seen a demo of how the robot works and picked it up. What are, sort of, the next steps? Is it scaling it out and having more robots and deploying them? I mean, that also sounds like a, sort of, military maneuver to be able to handle that. So, yeah, what are the future plans?

Signe Simonsen: The future plan has five steps. And the first step was to collect image data to create the AI model. We've done that one last year. And then was it to develop an AI rover? Checkmark on that one as well. And the third phase is where we're standing now is to find the AI model for the drone and the mapping system. And then it is to look for learning programs. Because when we do the scale-out, we also want to do awareness programs that support the whole solution. And then the last thing that would be to do citizen science programs where people all over the world can be integrated in this solution by going out and taking small video sequences of the plastic pellets and microplastic line, uploaded via web app. And for that way, I have been able to train the AI model and have the feeling that this is something that I actually can contribute with.

Julian Wood: Wow, and I mean, do you need... If people want to get involved or want to help or want to find out more about it, how can people get engaged with it?

Signe Simonsen: There's more steps, depending on how much time you have but follow along on social media such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. Connect with me on LinkedIn. If you see a good solution somewhere in the world, if you have a good idea, if you have a question that can challenge the idea, feel free to put it in the hole. And then we can, you know, together create the best solution for this challenge.

Julian Wood: Excellent. Well, thank you very much. I think it's fascinating to bring your military background and organization and to make a dent in our huge environmental issues using technology. Bringing them all together sounds fascinating. So, thanks very much for joining us on GOTO Unscripted.Signe Simonsen: Thank you so much for the invite.