«DOING NOTHING IS NOT AN OPTION»
BERNARD MERKX
Entrepreneur
CEO GreenWavePlastics Co – founder WasteFreeOceans
Honorary President PlasticsRecyclersEurope a.o.
NEW INNONET
ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER
HELSINKI, 7 JUNE 2017
WE HAVE TO CHANGE PERSPECTIVES
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
WASTE FREE OCEANS -> HORIZONTAL CO-CREATION SINCE 2011
“Let ‘s combine poverty eradication with improved environmental behaviour
and give local populations a better basis, with cleaner (drinking) water
and less rubbish” - Bernard Merkx WFO co-founder -. “This WFO foundation activity needs to be promoted all over Europe and
even all over the world. Pollution has already reached levels which are
no longer acceptable for our future generations”.– MEP Alain Cadec,
President EU Parliament Fishery Committee
“Litter is a valuable resource in the wrong place” – Achim Steiner UNEP
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
NO ONE ON THE PLANET WANTS TO BE SURROUNDED BY LITTER
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
WE, HUMANS, ARE CREATING A REAL MESS (AND NOT ONLY ON PLANET EARTH)….
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
CONTENT OF A CAMEL STOMACH ….
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
’WELCOME’ TO COPENHAGEN CITY CENTER
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
CAN WE STILL TURN THE TIDE ???
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
Business as usual
2016
2050
G7 GERMANY (2015) – CLIMATE CHANGE AND POLLUTION (LITTERING) – PRIORITY AREAS
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
SOLUTIONS ARE TO BE FOUND IN HORIZONTAL CO-CREATION
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
WASTE FREE OCEANS -> WALK THE TALK
“Let ‘s combine poverty eradication with improved environmental behaviour
and give local populations a better basis, with cleaner (drinking) water
and less rubbish” - Bernard Merkx WFO co-founder -. “This WFO foundation activity needs to be promoted all over Europe and
even all over the world. Pollution has already reached levels which are
no longer acceptable for our future generations”.– MEP Alain Cadec,
President EU Parliament Fishery Committee
“Litter is a valuable resource in the wrong place” – Achim Steiner UNEP
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
TACKLING EXISTING MARINE DEBRIS ISSUES
3 TYPES OF FISHING FOR LITTER PASSIVE FFL: When during normal work fishermen litter is collected in the nets it needs to be brought ashore instead of putting it on ‘the blue shelf’. ACTIVE FFL: When fishermen are sent on special duty to collect floating debris on identified hotspots in order to bring this material ashore. WFOTrawls can also be used ‘stationary’ (www.wastefreeoceans.eu). GHOST NET RETRIEVAL: With the help of fishermen and i.e. coast-guard, divers to trace and retrieve socalled ‘ghost nets’. Actions are prepared to pro-actively collect obsolete fishing gears in several ports.
STRATEGIC ALLIANCE with EUROPECHE allows VIP communication to over 80.000 EU fishermen in 15 EU countries to support WFO actions
WFO and partners 1st globally to apply all 3 types of FFL in practice AND
make new products from the waste collected
All 3 types are complementary
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
FISHING FOR LITTER – TACKLING EXISTING MARINE DEBRIS
.
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
HAPPY SEAL – HORIZONTAL CO- CREATION
.
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
HAPPY SEALfishnet recycling
HAPPY the SEAL & FRIENDS BROUGHT BACK TO WILDLIFE WITH FISHERMEN
.
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
HAPPY SEAL PROJECT – WADDENSEA - UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE
.
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
AND MORE SOLUTIONS BECOME AVAILABLE
.
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
PLASTIX Where Blue Meets Green (YouTube) United Nations June 2016
.
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
REFUGEES & LITTER ISSUES
.
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
CIRCULAR ECONOMY : ARE WE MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION ??
.
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
CLEAR MESSAGES FROM EUROPEAN COMMISSION
.
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
ON OUR WAY TO MORE CIRCULARITY ?
What is RECYCLING ?
(Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC definition)
Recycling means any recovery operation by which waste materials are
reprocessed into products, materials or substances whether for the
original or other purposes.
It includes the reprocessing of organic material but does NOT include
energy recovery and the reprocessing into material that are to be used
as fuels or for backfilling operations.
Hence:
Collection, logistics, sorting and “recovery” is clearly NOT recycling
Mechanical recycling not only safeguards valuable resources but
at the same time also a considerable amount of CO2 emissions
compared to virgin plastics
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
KEY MESSAGE FROM DUTCH PLASTICS RECYCLING INDUSTRY
.
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
PLASTICS GONE CIRCULAR
The leading EU plastics recycling industry companies are ready
EFSA approvals and/or EU Certplast certification achieved
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
WFO : OCEAN BOTTLE : ECOVER FRONTRUNNER COMPANY
.
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
THE DUTCH GOING CIRCULAR
The minimum requirements to achieve that :
Real focus and funding of the Raw Material transition
Strongly improved collection & sorting infrastructure
Stimulate structural sales markets for recyclates
Mandatory minimum recycling content (>50%) as
part of PRE
Long term clarity on legislation such as REACH.
Add considerable value to CO2 emission savings
which are achieved by replacing virgin plastics by
recyclates where possible
Full EU wide landfill ban & demotivation of any
incineration (can only be really last resort)
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
Nederland circulair in 2050
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM : « ADD VALUE TO WASTE »
.
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
WALK THE TALK
.
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
IN THE END IT IS ALL ABOUT ACCESS TO CLEAN (DRINKING) WATER
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
WE CAN NO LONGER DENY REALITY
.
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
THE USE OF RECYCLATES : THE PREVAILING RAW MATERIAL CHOICE
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
WE CAN NO LONGER DENY REALITY
BUT
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
«DOING NOTHING IS NOT AN OPTION»
WE ALSO NEED YOU TO ACT (NOW) !
GOING CIRCULAR : NO LONGER A CHOICE BUT AN URGENT NECESSITY
@BernardMerkx
WE CAN NO LONGER DENY REALITY
BUT
www.greenwaveplastics.eu Where Blue Meets Green
RECYCLATES FIRST !