Currensea Gives Customers Ability to Clean the Sea With Savings

To coincide with Earth Day 2021, UK’s first Direct Debit Travel Card Currensea is launching a new feature enabling customers to remove plastic from the ocean every time they spend abroad. Ahead of a move to post-ocean plastic cards, the company is also announcing that it will remove 2.5 times the amount of plastic they produce every year from the world’s oceans. This comes at a time when consumer awareness of the impact of modern life on our oceans is at an all-time high. In fact, new data from Currensea identified that Brits ranked their concern about sustainability at a 9/10, with 82% directly associating sustainability with less use of non-recyclable plastic.

Currensea is the first-of-its-kind Direct Debit travel card that allows consumers and SMEs to spend directly from their high street bank account without any of the charges, enabling it to be much cheaper than prepaid travel cards.

12.7 million tonnes of plastic waste is dumped into the ocean yearly. The partnership with Plastic Bank means customers can contribute a portion of the savings they make using Currensea to remove ocean plastic: for every £1 they contribute, 100 plastic bottles are removed from the sea on their behalf. This means that if all holidaymaking UK adults contributed a third of the savings they’d make on a £50 purchase when spending in Europe, we could remove 3.2 billion plastic bottles from the sea. Customers can track how many bottles they’ve removed from the ocean via the Currensea app. The new fintech also allows customers to use their savings to plant trees via One Tree Planted which plants one tree per 75p users choose to contribute from their Currensea savings.

These new initiatives reflect the measures Brits are taking to do their bit for the planet, according to Currensea’s research. The new survey identified that 96% felt brands could be doing more when it comes to sustainability, and 94% felt the UK government could be doing more. Consumers believe the most powerful actions we can take to make a positive impact on the environment are replanting the entire Amazon Rainforest (27%), removing all the plastic from the ocean (23%), and implementing good recycling schemes globally (19%).

The damaging effects of plastic pollution have become a pressing environmental issue. Plastic pollution is most harmful in developing nations, where waste disposal systems are often inefficient or non-existent. The fact is that plastic is being produced at a rate far greater than our ability to deal with it, ultimately having a huge health impact on both humans and animals. Plastic Bank has 21,000 collectors across the world including in Haiti, the Philippines, and Indonesia. They have already removed the equivalent of over 1 billion plastic water bottles, 1.5 billion coffee cup slides, and 500 billion plastic straws from the ocean. Plastic Bank’s Social Plastic® ecosystems also result in improved access to employment, education, services, and technology for developing communities globally.

James Lynn, co-founder of Currensea, said: “We’re all itching to go abroad once the international travel restrictions lift, and it is safe to do so. But, as our research shows, this has also been a period for consumers to reflect on the impact their lifestyles have on the environment, alongside what they can do to live more sustainably.  Sea is in our name for a reason. As a company, we care about the planet and are delighted to be able to give our customers another way to offset the impact of their travel, all while saving on their travel expenditure. We look forward to seeing the impact our partnership with Plastic Bank has on the environment over time.”

FCA-authorised Currensea connects directly with all major high-street banks, meaning consumers can spend abroad without the hassle of inconvenient top-ups and different accounts. Supporting all 180 currencies means customers can spend abroad without charges, expensive rates, or hidden costs. All payments are also covered by MasterCard’s chargeback protection.