Douglas Woodring

Founder and Managing Director at Ocean Recovery Alliance

Speaker

Mr. Woodring is the Founder and Managing Director of Ocean Recovery Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in Hong Kong. Its expertise lies in reducing plastic pollution by working with communities, businesses and governments to develop strategic solutions and programs that educate, build awareness, and lead to long-term positive societal change.

Two of his global programs were launched in 2010 at the Clinton Global Initiative, including the first plastic footprinting methodology in the world, the Plastic Disclosure Project (PDP), and the first app in the world to allow people to report trash hotspots anywhere in the world’s waterways and coastlines, Global Alert. He founded and ran the Plasticity Forum for 9 years in 13 cities globally, as the only conference focused solely on solutions for 2nd life plastic, and in 2018 he was awarded the Prince’s Prize for Innovative Philanthropy in Monaco. He recently published the report, “Towards Circular Plastics,” giving the first global metrics of recycling benefits if all type of technologies are allowed to advance, leading to an extra 20m/tons/year within 15 years if the right policies are put into place.

Born in Northern California, Mr. Woodring has worked in Asia for over 30 years, and has a dual master’s degree from The Wharton School (MBA) and Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Environmental Economics, with a BA from the University of California at Berkeley.