The Social Entrepreneur
Caiti Waks, 35, Co-founder and President
Debris Free Oceans, Miami
Advice for Nonprofit Leaders
“Fall in love with the problem, not the solution. Be willing to learn, adapt and change your mind when new data suggests an alternative path may be more beneficial to the earth and community. Lastly, this work is tiring, challenging and relentless. You have to celebrate your wins along the way.” — Caiti Waks
- THE PLASTIC PROBLEM
Half of all plastic ever created has been manufactured in the past 20 years, and production is expected to double over the next decade, according to the Ocean Conservancy. About 700 marine species are hurt by plastics, and by 2050, there could be more plastic in the oceans than fish by weight, according to some estimates.
The Back Story
“I’m a lawyer and a surfer who’s obsessed with garbage,” says Caiti Waks, who today runs the Miami nonprofit Debris Free Oceans. As a child, she learned to love the ocean, accompanying her mom during deep sea fishing expeditions.
In high school she read Ocean’s End by journalist Colin Woodard. “I couldn’t believe that our oceans were in such a dire state, and it immediately changed my whole trajectory. I wanted to dedicate myself to ocean conservation.”
While in high school, Waks went to Nicaragua for a school service project and visited La Chureca, at one time one of the largest garbage dumps in the world. “It just was really shocking to me to see so much trash in one area, and that there were thousands of families living in this place. That triggered my interest in garbage.” While at Palmer Trinity School, she started an environmental club and staged a “mini eco coup” in the cafeteria. The private Episcopal day school was among the first schools to go plastic-free in Miami-Dade County. “It was exciting to be part of that history.”
After studying Ecosystem Science and Policy at the University of Miami and then while pursuing a law degree at the University of Florida, Waks spent some time in the Bahamas while working on a law school project for a marine protection area. There, she came across a shoreline covered in trash. “This was a small island of 4,000 people. They weren’t producing this garbage. This was just washing ashore from coming up the Gulf Stream. … They wanted to protect their fish, and then here they are just getting bombarded by the world’s trash.”
Then, a summer cross-country bike trip to raise cancer awareness gave her a closeup view of trash across America and time to brainstorm about how she would tackle this problem. When she returned, she took a nonprofit management class and created Debris Free Oceans as a project.
She launched it as a nonprofit in 2014 at the encouragement of her husband, entrepreneur Jeremy Waks, who is a co-founder along with her law school friend, Saira Fida, a CPA. Debris Free Oceans’ mission is to inspire communities to responsibly manage the life cycle of plastics and waste as part of a global movement to eradicate marine debris from oceans and beaches. “Prevention is really our area of expertise and where we think the solution really lies. We've got to stop producing so much plastic,” says Waks.
Solutions
Waks believed too many sustainability nonprofits were predicated on fear. “I felt like there wasn’t enough energy being put toward positive reinforcement to do the right thing. We were creating a place that was comfortable and fun for people who weren’t already in the environmental sphere to get involved, and a place where people could find action-oriented solutions that they could implement and begin to start solving the problem.”
Recently, Debris Free Oceans received seed funding from the Meringoff Family Foundation and a NOAA Sea Grant to create the Zero Waste Miami Coalition. To inspire a circular economy around reuse — and create jobs — the coalition connects reuse service providers to reuse service users. For example, Debris Free Oceans connected the coordinators of the Ultra Music Festival with ReCreate Miami, a reuse network, to divert tons of signage and other materials from going to the landfill. To date, about 95 individuals representing more than 70 organizations have joined the coalition. The plan is to come up with a zero-waste action strategy and grow from there.
Other initiatives include the Chef Andrew Scholars Program, which honors the memory of Chef Andrew Michael Alessi, who was a large Debris Free Oceans supporter. The nonprofit trains two college students annually to be experts in plastic pollution, make educational community and school presentations, make public comments at county commission meetings and host cleanups. Debris Free Oceans also consults with corporations and worked with the city of Miami Beach to create and run Plastic Free MB, a voluntary certification program for businesses that eliminate single-use plastics. Miami-Dade County replicated a version of this program called Plastic Free 305, which Debris Free Oceans helps with.
Through another grant, Waks and her team worked in partnership with Ocean Conservancy and Big Blue + You to train high school students to become junior sustainability consultants who talk to businesses about eliminating single-use plastics, with the goal of signing them up for Plastic Free 305. Waks hopes to offer a similar program in 2025.
Results and Goals
Debris Free Oceans says it has removed more than 61,500 pounds of trash from Miami-Dade County, with the help of 12,000 volunteers and 384 cleanups. The team has educated more than 14,200 students in Miami- Dade County. Through its Plastic Free Cities program, the nonprofit estimates that 1.28 million single-use plastic items are being diverted annually by voluntary business choices so far.
Over the next year, the goal is to expand the Plastic Free MB and Plastic Free 305 programs, build up the Zero Waste Miami coalition and activate more projects that reduce waste throughout Miami-Dade County — and that could be scaled nationally. Waks hopes to one day see “a circular economy in Miami so mainstream that Debris Free Oceans is no longer needed.”
How to Help
Waks says everyone can do their part to encourage reuse. “Look in your trash bin. What piece of waste can you reduce from your life and focus on that. That could be using a reusable water bottle or reusable bags,” she suggests. “Host a clothing swap with your friends, or if you have children, host a toy swap amongst kids. Tell your political representatives that you want to see policies that support zero waste and circular economies to make sure that our generation and future generations are not swimming in a sea of plastic.”