Marius Smit, Netherlands

Marius spends his days boating along Amsterdam's beautiful canals - fishing out the plastic bottles dumped there. He uses the discarded bottles to build boats, then uses those boats to fish for more bottles. It's a seemingly endless cycle. But Marius' goal is to one day go out of business, as that would mean: clean canals.

Marius' mission is to not only clean up Amsterdam's canals, but to make the entire world's waters plastic-free by recognizing the value in plastic waste. To do this, he founded Plastic Whale, the first plastic fishing company.

To get the canals cleaned up faster, Plastic Whale often organizes "fishing trips" for companies and volunteers. Several hundred people then get together on a boat, drinking, listening to music and hanging out in the sun, while at the same time fishing for plastic and doing the environment a favor. Companies like Tommy Hilfiger and even the Amsterdam police have already participated.

It's fun, and it's a good deed. But recycling plastic bottles doesn't just reduce solid waste pollution - it's also good for our climate. Why? Plastic is made from oil - a fossil fuel - and it takes a lot of energy to produce. Since the majority of the world's energy still comes from coal, recycling plastic reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

The message: It doesn't make sense to use a plastic bottle only once, and then toss it into the trash (or the canal). And this is exactly what Marius wants to highlight - and to change.