INITIATIVES
| Name | www | Contact | Mission/Vision |
|---|---|---|---|
| BeyondPlasticMed | https://www.beyondplasticmed.org/en/ | https://www.beyondplasticmed.org/en/contact-us/ | In order to respond to local issues, BeMed supports every year projects aiming at reducing the use of plastic, finding alternatives, improving waste management systems, raising awareness, collecting data, mobilizing stakeholders and helping to set up new regulations. Since its creation, BeMed has committed to finance 1.23 M€ to support 82 projects in 15 different countries. Through the coordination of this network of local stakeholders, BeMed aims to instill a regional dynamic by connecting organizations, facilitating the sharing of experience and best practices and encouraging the replication of effective actions. To strengthen its impact, BeMed created in January 2020 its Business Club which brings together companies that want to commit to a plastic-free Mediterranean. |
| Circular plastic alliance | https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/industry/strategy/industrial-alliances/circular-plastics-alliance_en | grow-env-rplastics-pledge@ec.europa.eu | The Circular Plastics Alliance is an initiative under the European Strategy for Plastics (2018), in particular under Annex III related to voluntary pledges by industry. The European Commission launched the Circular Plastics Alliance in December 2018. The Circular Plastics Alliance is open to all public and private actors from European plastics value chains that are ready to actively contribute to delivering on the declaration of the alliance. There are currently 311 signatories (list below). To join the alliance, an organisation must sign the declaration, committing it to the alliance's shared vision and to contributing to its operational work. The signatories "take action to boost the EU market for recycled plastics up to 10 million tonnes by 2025". The summary of the alliance’s commitments for action lists the planned deliverables, with deadlines. Several deliverables are already published and new deliverables will be published soon. See more on commitments and deliverables. The Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs provides the secretariat for the Circular Plastics Alliance. |
| EUROPARC | https://www.europarc.org/ | europarc@europarc.org | The EUROPARC Federation therefore as the representative body of Europe’s Protected Areas, is the collective voice for all nature and landscape areas and seeks to build a stronger, unifying, European network organisation that is better placed to support our members and to respond to current and future challenges facing Europe’s nature. We are the EUROPARC Federation and we represent hundreds of responsible authorities and thousands of Protected Areas in 40 countries. We often say in EUROPARC that nature knows no boundaries and we, therefore, facilitate international cooperation in all aspects of Protected Area management to improve and conserve our shared natural heritage. |
| European Compost Network | https://www.compostnetwork.info/ | siebert@compostnetwork.info | European Compost Network is a membership organisation with 66 members from 27 European Countries. Members include all European bio-waste organisations and their operating plants, research, policy making, consultants and authorities. Via the member organisations, ECN represents more than 4500 experts and plant operators with more than 45 million tonnes of biological waste treatment capacity. |
| ILSI Europe Microplastics Initiative | https://ilsi.eu/scientific-activities/food-safety/ilsi-europe-initiative-on-microplastics-new/ | iguelinckx@ilsieurope.be or bantonio@ilsieurope.be | Founded in 1986, ILSI Europe fosters collaboration among the best scientists from industry, academia and the public sector to provide evidence-based scientific solutions and to pave the way forward in nutrition, food safety, consumer trust and sustainability. To deliver science of the highest quality and integrity, scientists collaborate and share their unique expertise in expert groups, workshops, symposia and resulting publications. Whereas ILSI Europe’s activities are mainly funded by its member companies, academic experts involved in our activities contribute through their voluntary work. In addition, ILSI Europe receives funding from the European Union-funded projects they partner with and from projects initiated by Member States’ national authorities. We build multi-stakeholder science-based solutions for a sustainable and healthier world. We foster collaboration between relevant stakeholders; We identify existing and emerging challenges in food, nutrition and health, and we facilitate proactive practical solutions; We communicate and disseminate our scientific output widely; Our way of working is designed to deliver science of the highest quality and integrity. |
| International Knowledge Hub Against Plastic Pollution | https://ikhapp.org/ | info@ikhapp.org | The International Knowledge Hub Against Plastic Pollution - IKHAPP's mission is to collect, critically analyse and disseminate scientific knowledge to support effective policies and actions to fight plastic pollution globally. Plastic pollution is one of the most important global challenges, negatively impacting biodiversity, quality of life and human health. IKHAPP comprises a community of scientists committed to work towards an environment free from plastic pollution. |
| Microplastics Advanced Research and Innovation Initiative (MARII) | https://icca-chem.org/focus/microplastics-advanced-research-and-innovation-initiative-marii/ | icca@americanchemistry.com | MARII is a platform launched by ICCA to facilitate the global exchange of inforation on microplastics research projects and related scientific conferences and activities. MARII is envisioned as a roundtable to help bring together scientists from industry, academia, research institutions and other venues from across the globe. |
| Plastic Smart Cities | https://plasticsmartcities.org/ | https://plasticsmartcities.org/pages/contact | Plastic Smart Cities is a WWF initiative that supports a no plastic in nature agenda. Since 2018, the initiative has supported cities and coastal centers in taking bold action to stop plastic pollution, with a goal to reduce plastic leakage into nature by 30% in the near term, and achieving no plastics in nature by 2030. |
| Plastics monitoRIng detectiOn RemedIaTion recoverY (PRIORITY) | https://ca-priority.eu/ | stefania.federici@unibs.it | PRIORITY is a science and technology research network focused on developing, implementing, and consolidating strategies to tackle the global challenges of micro- and nanoplastics in the environment. This COST Action combines expertise in chemistry, physics, life science, engineering, standards, economy, and law. The network creates a robust infrastructure for scientific communication, exchange, and collaboration to foster new research activities and citizen science. PRIORITY aims to enhance the technical standards for sampling and analysis of micro- and nanoplastics in the environment, to develop a more reliable assessment of exposure and biological effects, and to advance activities in terms of environmental remediation and recovery. The Action will support the harmonization of European regulation associated with microplastics. It will assist the European Commission in critical aspects of environmental and ecosystems protection, food safety, and life science. |
| PlasticSoup Foundation | https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/ | info@plasticsoupfoundation.org | Our slogan is ‘No plastic in our water or our bodies’. We combat the plastic soup at its source and therefore, we focus on three main goals: - prevent plastic from ending up in the environment - share knowledge about the health risks related to plastics and plastic additives - achieve absolute reduction in the production and use of plastic Plastic has fantastic properties and is extremely cheap to produce, which is why almost everything around us is made it. We’re in contact with it all the time. Because plastic in the environment breaks down into tiny particles, we’re also constantly eating, drinking, and breathing in plastic particles. The realization that constantly being exposed to plastic can have harmful consequences for our health is slowly dawning on the public. The first scientists have already found evidence for this. |
| Plasticulture | https://www.plasticulture.com/ | contact@plasticulture.com | Plasticulture plays an increasing role in the growing demand of the mankind feeding. Plasticulture improves production in quantity and quality, using less pesticides, fertilizers, water and labour. Since the beginning, the plasticulture community is involved in the environment protection, bettering the environmental impact of the agricultural production. Once collected, plastics wastes from agriculture can be recycled and in various countries users and coverters are commited to a “plastic neutral balance farming”. |
| Plastics in the Environment – Sources • Sinks • Solutions | https://bmbf-plastik.de/en | saskia.ziemann@kit.edu | Plastics in the environment are a global problem and the evidence for this is hard to miss: huge waste deposits are seen in the oceans even in remote areas of the Arctic, plastic particles are found in the stomachs of fish and seabirds, and plastics of all sizes and shapes are clearly visible on almost any beach around the world. Despite a range of activities and approaches, our knowledge of the full extent of plastic pollution is still limited: there is not enough validated knowledge on the origins of plastics in the ocean, their behaviour in oceans, inland waters and soils, and how they could affect animals and humans. Germany’s Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung – BMBF) addresses this issue with its current research focus, an initiative called “Plastics in the Environment – Sources • Sinks • Solutions”. The BMBF is thus supporting the transition to a resource and environmentally friendly economy, which is at the heart of the flagship initiative Green Economy within the BMBF-framework programme ”Research for Sustainable Development” (FONA³). With this research focus, the BMBF expands on work conducted in previous funding measures, e.g.: the international funding programme investigating microplastics in the oceans (part of JPI OCEANS), the ongoing joint research project “Microplastics in the water cycle” (MiWa) (part of the funding priority Sustainable Water Management), as well as the Social-ecological Junior Research Group PlastX working in this area. |
| Rethink plastic alliance | https://rethinkplasticalliance.eu/ | ioana@rethinkplasticalliance.eu | Rethink Plastic is an alliance of leading European NGOs, representing thousands of active groups, supporters and citizens in every EU Member State. We are part of the global Break Free From Plastic movement, consisting of over 11,000 organisations and individuals worldwide demanding an end to plastic pollution. |
| Spanish Association of Compostable Biodegradable Plastics (ASOBIOCOM) | http://www.asobiocom.es | asobiocom@asobiocom.es | ASCOBIOCOM is a non-profit association, born with the desire to offer a meeting place for the promotion, defense and research of compostable biodegradable plastics. ASOBIOCOM arises from the need for producers and processors of compostable biodegradable plastics to be represented and to offer a partner to both authorities, users and consumers, for the development of this sector. Now we are walking together in the same direction, companies, users, research centers and public entities of various kinds, in order to combine efforts, knowledge and experiences that allow us to achieve the objectives and be the reference forum for this new family of polymers. |
| The Ocean Cleanup | https://theoceancleanup.com/ | press@theoceancleanup.com | The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization developing and scaling technologies to rid the oceans of plastic. To achieve this objective, we have to work on a combination of closing the sources of plastic pollution and cleaning up what has already accumulated in the ocean and doesn’t go away by itself. |
| Tid(y)Up | https://www.interreg-danube.eu/approved-projects/tid-y-up | gudrun.obersteiner@boku.ac.at | Tid(y)Up project is focusing on the improvement of water quality and reduction of plastic pollution in one of Europe’s most heavily contaminated rivers, the Tisza, and investigates plastic pollution and its effect on the Danube and the Black Sea. |
| Less is more (Weniger ist Mehr) | https://www.bmuv.de/weniger-ist-mehr | NA | The campaign "Less is more" (running from April 12 to 26, 2021) provided information about the possibilities for consumers to use reusable alternatives, the environmental impact of disposable plastic and the measures adopted by the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUV). The Germany-wide campaign showed everyday examples of single-use or disposable products that are superfluous: fast food boxes, disposable plastic tableware, plastic bags and disposable coffee cups. The motifs made it clear that such products are usually only used for a short time - but if they are disposed of incorrectly, they pollute the environment for a long time. |
