re:Trace™ wasn’t just born out of necessity. It came from a desire to see, to recognize what we’ve trained ourselves to overlook. Plastic...

Beach cleanups have long been a go-to tactic in the fight against marine plastic pollution, but one stubborn question has remained: what happens to the waste after it’s collected? In most cases, plastic debris pulled from the ocean ends up in landfills or incinerators—contaminated by salt, seaweed, and grime that traditional recycling centers can’t handle.

This is the first in a four-part series chronicling my journey with Artificial Intelligence not just as a technology, but as a lifelong thread that’s run through my career, my values, and now, my mission to protect the oceans.

We’re at a tipping point , not just in climate, but in credibility. Plastic waste is piling up faster than we can track it, and public trust in recycling is eroding just as quickly. We’ve entered the era of greenwashing, where sustainability is more marketing buzzword than measurable truth. Terms like “recycled,” “eco,” and “ocean-bound” are slapped onto packaging with no real data to back them up.

We have a plastic problem. The proliferation of disposable plastic products has lead to major plastic pollution...