[aspectmin]

I LOVE this company. We need more of them. Innovative, Solving world problems. Aware of their impact.

I am always encouraging people to donate. These are the kinds of projects that might save us.

I wish YC, and it's kin, would fund companies like this.

[jonasdegendt]

FWIW, YC does accept non-profits and has funded a bunch: https://www.ycombinator.com/nonprofits/.

[klysm]

Wouldn’t make sense for YC - where’s their return?

[arrowsmith]

Living on a habitable planet seems like it would be a good return on anyone's investment.

[datascienced]

It would require both treaties and some way this company can be the preferred supplier (maybe a 10 year contract to operate).

[missedthecue]

Does it have a sustainable revenue stream or is it more of a charity?

[cdrini]

It's donation driven. Not sure if you were implying this, but I wouldn't call that unsustainable. Wikipedia, Internet Archive, and many other nonprofits are donation driven and have been around for decades.

Edit: I just watched their 2023 summary video, and it seems like they might also be doing more stuff with the plastic they extract that can be recycled/repurposed. That might be a potential revenue source, but not sure.

[nick7376182]

Charge the country for diverted trash, a la waste management companies would be a good place to start.

[shmeeed]

If they started charging for it, that would probably go a long way to end all cooperation with state authorities, very quickly. As in, have their right to deploy/maintain the retainers revoked, etc.

If those countries had the political will and financial resources to deal with the waste, they wouldn't need for an NGO to do it in the first place.