About Honest Ocean

Our two founders, Tom and Angus, had a simple idea - change the flow of ocean plastic waste in South East Asia.

We started by looking into some of the worst affected areas by plastic waste, such as Indonesia, and found that there was extremely poor infrastructure in place to combat the overflowing plastic pollution. Which is not only caused by South East Asian countries, but by all western countries, who have been exporting their plastic waste since 20 years to countries like Indonesia.

We have concentrated on creating a closed loop 360 plastic supply chain, turning plastic waste into a commodity, whilst also educating and empowering local communities to help in the fight against ocean plastic waste.

 

Tom Jackson
Co-Founder and CEO

With a background in manufacturing, I was always interested in the sourcing and collection of materials that went into making products. Combined with spending the last 10 years of my life on the ocean, seeing the direct impact of the plastic pollution, I knew I wanted to change.

This interest led me to look into how we can create a sustainable waste management supply chain across Indonesia. It is our mission that Honest Ocean will provide accurate traceability of materials for its customers and for a more sustainable and cleaner future.

 

Angus Fleming
Co-Founder and CFO

My background is in the Insurance industry and Property sector respectively working for and with multi-national corporations in the UK, South Africa and the US. With over 10 years experience, it became clear to me how sustainability was impacting the corporate world.

Tom introduced me to the concept of Honest Ocean, and, excited by this opportunity, we began looking at the positive impact we could make for the environment, local communities and helping businesses adapt to an ever increasingly sustainable world. The Honest Ocean journey came to life.

 

Anika Merkens
COO and Traceability

As a child I wanted to become a marine biologist. I always wanted to protect the ocean and its fascinating habitants. Strongly agreeing with the motto "No water no life, no blue no green.", I started to self-educate in plastic pollution and plastic itself.

And how it often is, life happened and I studied media informatics and worked in the IT field for a while. But I always knew that there is more to my purpose in life - the part of me that wanted to change the world and safe the ocean. Second name optimism. That is when, coincidentally, I met Tom and started my journey with Honest Ocean.