This Startup’s Holistic Solution Stops Plastic Pollution at Its Source

The world is drowning in plastic. Each year, an estimated 11 million metric tonnes of plastic waste enters our oceans — a figure expected to triple by 2040. Rivers act as plastic conveyor belts, transporting up to 80 percent of ocean-bound plastic from inland cities and towns to coastal waters.

If trends continue, plastic could outweigh all the fish in the ocean by 2050. While bans, recycling programs and awareness campaigns help, the only way to truly turn the tide is to stop plastic at its source.

Enter Ichthion — a technology company that’s shifting the global conversation on plastic pollution from cleanup to prevention. Founded in London and now operating across Latin America, Ichthion combines cutting-edge engineering, satellite data, AI-powered software and community partnerships to intercept plastic before it reaches the ocean.

Launched in 2017 by founder and CEO Inty Gronneberg under the name Remora Marine, the young company sparked the interest of a visiting journalist from Reuters at a university event in London, who offered to produce a short video about the early-stage technology — the video went viral, reaching audiences in over 85 countries. This burst of global attention prompted the university to ask Gronneberg whether he wanted to hand over the intellectual property or build a business. He chose the latter.

“Since then, many things have changed,” Gronneberg tells Sustainable Brands® (SB). “We started out focused on developing technologies to tackle plastic waste. Today, we are a company whose goal is to reduce plastic pollution in the environment using data, innovation, technology and science.”

A comprehensive approach

Ichthion’s approach to tackling plastic pollution is built on a connected system of technologies that work collaboratively to detect, track and remove it — addressing the problem from source to sea.

It starts with Hyperion — an AI-powered software that analyzes satellite and drone imagery to pinpoint plastic pollution hotspots — which allows Ichthion to trace the journey of waste from inland sources to coastal waters, identifying exactly where intervention is needed.

“We understand plastic pollution footprints in detail,” Gronneberg says. “We use European Union Copernicus satellites to track coastal plastic flow. Then we deploy high-resolution aerial and river cameras to map pollution hotspots; then, we decide where to place our Azure systems.”

Azure is a river-based interception system that uses floating barriers and mechanical extraction to capture plastic waste. While it has a design capacity of up to 80 tonnes per day, actual extraction rates vary depending on local conditions and deployment scale. The system operates from fixed locations and transfers collected waste directly to land, helping to minimize disruption to aquatic ecosystems.

To prevent plastic from becoming pollution is Galapaxy — a behavioral intervention model that reduces dependency on single-use plastics by offering free water stations and reusable bottle programs.

Ichthion’s pipeline will soon expand further with two additional innovations:

• Ultramarine, a mobile plastic-interception system designed for large vessels, will target critical coastal zones along major shipping routes while avoiding harm to marine life.
• Cobalt — a self-cleaning, membrane-based system designed to capture microplastics using the natural flow of water — can be integrated into turbines or ships for scalable, energy-efficient operation.

Success stories

Ichthion has been working with countries across the globe to reduce plastic pollution, with successful cases emerging from some of the world’s most polluted river systems. In Ecuador’s San Pedro River, the company’s intervention has reduced plastic pollution 40 percent.

“We discovered that around 40 percent of the plastic pollution was coming from illegal industrial dumping, mainly from textile factories,” Gronneberg said. “By sharing this data with the municipality, we were able to take targeted action. Once upstream factories were made aware and enforcement was in place, they had no choice but to stop dumping.”

In another Ecuadorian river, the Tajamar, pollution sources were traced to fertilizer bottles used in rural farming. They are now working with both communities and the fertilizer producers to implement a deposit return scheme.

The third major deployment took place in Guatemala’s Motagua River, one of the most heavily polluted rivers in Central America. Satellite and aerial analysis revealed that more than 75 percent of the plastic pollution came from a local landfill that had been compromised by a broken sewage pipe.

“The entire river looked like a landfill, 300 kilometers of it — it was horrible,” Gronneberg says. “So instead of deploying technology, we advised the authorities to fix the source of the problem — a massive leakage from the local landfill.”

Engaging local communities

In areas with little or no waste-management infrastructure, Ichthion partners with municipalities, local waste pickers and residents to build capacity and shift behavior.

“In rural Ecuador, only two out of ten people have access to waste collection,” Gronneberg explains. “People throw waste in rivers or burn it — not because they don’t care, but because they don’t have alternatives.”

Ichthion partners with waste-picking communities, integrating their labor into the recycling value chain: “Every place we’ve worked has local waste pickers. We teach companies how to work with them in a socially responsible way, using our data to direct collection efforts and boost impact.”

The company has also played a policy-shaping role in Ecuador, helping draft the country’s first circular economy and inclusive recycling law; and a tax incentive scheme, inspired by the UK’s Enterprise Investment Scheme, that rewards companies for investing in environmental projects.

Key partnerships

Ichthion seeks collaborators who are committed to preventing plastic leakage at the source — not just recovering or recycling waste downstream. The company partners with organizations that share its goal of making a measurable, long-term impact on reducing plastic pollution through data-driven strategies, community engagement and systemic change.

Ichthion has worked with brands including Corona, and currently collaborates with 18 organizations globally — including a Japanese NGO, a California-based ocean science group, and a Chinese car manufacturer with operations in Ecuador. Two bottling companies have also joined the fold.

“Our initial instinct was to avoid working with bottling companies. But now we believe we must,” Gronneberg says. “They need data to understand their impact, and that data can drive change.”

With headquarters still in the UK, Ichthion is expanding fast. Beyond Ecuador, it operates in Malaysia and soon South Africa. It offers full deployments in the Andean region, and Gronneberg says more than 20 licensing requests are under review around the world.

To facilitate scale, Ichthion is redesigning its hardware to be even more affordable and easier to manufacture — aiming to make its technology accessible to developing countries.

Protecting the Galápagos

Ichthion’s long-term vision is to reduce plastic pollution reaching Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands by 30 percent by 2030 through its Galápagos Guardians alliance. The plan includes deploying at least 11 Azure systems across key rivers in Ecuador, intercepting much of the waste flowing from inland regions toward the archipelago.

Plastic pollution in Ecuador isn’t just an environmental issue; on Puná Island, for example, contamination has led to a deterioration in economic and community wellbeing. This reality is driving Ichthion’s next major expansion.

“All plastic from the Andean region flows toward the Galápagos. If we don’t act now, we’ll destroy one of the most important ecosystems on Earth,” Gronneberg asserts. “There is no silver bullet. Pollution sources are different everywhere. In some places, it’s illegal dumping. In others, it’s weak infrastructure. In others, it’s cultural behavior. Each case needs its own strategy, and that’s what we’re building here at Ichthion.”

To achieve this vision, Ichthion is forming strategic partnerships with companies that share its mission. One key collaborator is GRUPO AJE, a multinational bottling company committed to sustainability. As the first corporate member of the Galápagos Guardians network, AJE is supporting efforts to intercept waste at the source and restore Ecuador’s rivers before plastics reach marine environments.

“We identified strong synergies between our organizations, which led us to become the first company within the Galápagos Guardians network,” Eliana Carmigniani, AJE’s Head of Communications and Sustainability, tells SB. “This partnership is a meaningful step in our mission to recover the equivalent weight in waste that we introduce into the market and to help restore Ecuador’s major rivers.

“By reducing the environmental impact on over 50 marine species at risk in the Galápagos Islands, this initiative strengthens our broader sustainability and decarbonization strategy. We’re proud to move forward with Ichthion to build a more sustainable future.”

Ichthion aims to expand this model by bringing more mission-aligned companies into the alliance — scaling solutions that prevent plastic leakage long before it reaches the sea.