In a world where technology moves at lightning speed, I am fortunate to have a vantage point and a unique opportunity to see the connections business leaders make and the possibilities they create in defining moments for their industry.
“Beyond Tech – Expanding Perspectives” is about their stories. With this series, I hope to provide a glimpse into the inspiring minds I encounter, capturing their ideas to spark insight and innovation.
For the first episode, I had the privilege of speaking with Nisha Bakker, director of Partnerships at The Ocean Cleanup, an organization proving that, with the right vision, evidence, and engineering, we can solve global challenges at scale.
Plastic is one of humanity’s greatest inventions and one of its most persistent problems. Durable, cheap, and versatile, it has transformed food security, medicine, logistics, and manufacturing. But that same durability means most of the plastic ever produced still exists today. And much of it has ended up where it shouldn’t: in our rivers, our oceans, our ecosystems—even our bodies.
Today, the world produces more than 430 million tons of plastic annually. Production is still rising, projected to grow 66 percent by 2040, even as waste management systems are overwhelmed. Only nine percent of plastic is recycled globally. A third is mismanaged, left to leak into the environment through open dumping, unregulated landfills, and littering. As a result, more than 109 million tons of plastic have accumulated in rivers and lakes, far more than the 30 million tons in the oceans themselves.
Rivers are the main conveyor belt carrying waste to the sea. In 2020 alone, 1.4 million tons of plastic flowed from rivers into the ocean. Without intervention, this will more than double by 2060. Just a thousand rivers account for 80 percent of this flow, largely in rapidly developing economies where growth, urbanization, and weak waste systems collide.
This is where The Ocean Cleanup has focused its mission. The organization aims to rid the world’s oceans of plastic through a comprehensive strategy that includes removing legacy plastic accumulated in the ocean and along coastlines while also stopping new plastic pollution from entering the marine environment. Their ambition is bold and unambiguous: to put themselves out of business by 2040.
Data, vision the difference in cleanup efforts
During our conversation, Nisha explained how the work is driven not only by passion, but by evidence. “You could look at a river, see the problem, and start removing plastic immediately,” she said. “But we first determine the best place to remove it, and then build the entire value chain around it—including recycling, operators, permits, and long-term partners. Data is what sets us apart.”
Behind every cleanup is an enormous amount of engineering and analysis. The Ocean Cleanup’s teams map political, economic, and social dynamics in each country with an affected river system. They deploy trackers to understand how fast plastic moves, where it gets stuck, and how seasonal changes from monsoons to dry months affect pollution flows. Cameras equipped with detection algorithms help quantify volumes and patterns. Modelling and simulations guide where to deploy Interceptor systems and how to scale them.
This foundation of data explains their success: more than 46 million kilograms of waste intercepted and removed from marine and freshwater environments, thanks to System 03, their towed ocean technology spanning over 2.2 kilometers, which can clean an area the size of a football field in five seconds; and over 20 Interceptor systems deployed across the world’s most polluted rivers. The organization recently unveiled plans to tackle up to a third of all plastic emissions from rivers through its 30 Cities Program, targeting urban centers with important waterways and major pollution problems.
But as Nisha stressed, cleanup is only one part of the solution. “We’re buying time for systemic change,” she told me. “Ultimately you need governments, producers, recyclers, and communities working together.”
There are signs of progress: more than 90 countries now have plastic bag bans; extended producer responsibility regulations are expanding; and negotiations toward a global plastics treaty have brought unprecedented international attention to the issue despite agreement remaining elusive.
The importance of systems
What struck me most in our discussion was the philosophy that drives The Ocean Cleanup. With employees from 40 nationalities, they are building bridges across sectors, disciplines, and geographies. They are proving what is possible when a global movement is anchored in evidence-based design and relentless experimentation.
At SAP, we recognize this mindset. Helping the world run better and improving people’s lives requires more than intention; it requires agile systems capable of putting insights at the fingertips of business. That’s why The Ocean Cleanup relies on SAP to deliver on its mission. Every hour they spend building business systems is an hour not spent developing ocean systems, river systems, or new engineering solutions. Our role is to provide a stable, integrated digital foundation so they can focus on innovation, not administration. Technology should accelerate impact and enable scale, not get in the way of it.
The same is true for every organization. Whether fighting pollution, reimagining supply chains, or transforming business models, the biggest breakthroughs happen when you combine purpose with technology that can support it. Clean, connected data, intelligent processes, and applications that automate what can be automated so people can focus on what matters most: This is why SAP is more relevant than ever.
The Ocean Cleanup shows what is possible when bold ideas meet the right technology and the right partnerships. This is exactly the type of conversation I look forward to bringing you through Beyond Tech – Expanding Perspectives, stories of inspiring minds that demonstrate that the future is not something we predict, but something we build together.
Manos Raptopoulos is global president of Customer Success, Europe, APAC, Middle East & Africa, and a member of the Extended Board at SAP.
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