«DOING NOTHING IS NOT AN OPTION»...«DOING NOTHING IS NOT AN OPTION» BERNARD MERKX Entrepreneur CEO GreenWavePlastics Co – founder WasteFreeOceans Honorary President PlasticsRecyclersEurope

«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


NO ONE ON THE PLANET WANTS TO BE SURROUNDED BY LITTER


WE, HUMANS, ARE CREATING A REAL MESS (AND NOT ONLY ON PLANET EARTH)….


http://www.pnsfexpedition.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/IMG_2559-flickr.jpg

CONTENT OF A CAMEL STOMACH ….


’WELCOME’ TO COPENHAGEN CITY CENTER


CAN WE STILL TURN THE TIDE ???


Business as usual

2016

2050

G7 GERMANY (2015) – CLIMATE CHANGE AND POLLUTION (LITTERING) – PRIORITY AREAS


SOLUTIONS ARE TO BE FOUND IN HORIZONTAL CO-CREATION


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


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


http://www.wastefreeoceans.eu/





FISHING FOR LITTER – TACKLING EXISTING MARINE DEBRIS

.


HAPPY SEAL – HORIZONTAL CO- CREATION

.


HAPPY SEALfishnet recycling

HAPPY the SEAL & FRIENDS BROUGHT BACK TO WILDLIFE WITH FISHERMEN

.


HAPPY SEAL PROJECT – WADDENSEA - UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE

.


AND MORE SOLUTIONS BECOME AVAILABLE

.


PLASTIX Where Blue Meets Green (YouTube) United Nations June 2016

.


REFUGEES & LITTER ISSUES

.


CIRCULAR ECONOMY : ARE WE MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION ??

.


CLEAR MESSAGES FROM EUROPEAN COMMISSION

.


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


KEY MESSAGE FROM DUTCH PLASTICS RECYCLING INDUSTRY

.


PLASTICS GONE CIRCULAR

The leading EU plastics recycling industry companies are ready

EFSA approvals and/or EU Certplast certification achieved


WFO : OCEAN BOTTLE : ECOVER FRONTRUNNER COMPANY

.


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)


Nederland circulair in 2050

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM : « ADD VALUE TO WASTE »

.


WALK THE TALK

.


IN THE END IT IS ALL ABOUT ACCESS TO CLEAN (DRINKING) WATER


WE CAN NO LONGER DENY REALITY

.


THE USE OF RECYCLATES : THE PREVAILING RAW MATERIAL CHOICE



BUT


«DOING NOTHING IS NOT AN OPTION»

WE ALSO NEED YOU TO ACT (NOW) !

GOING CIRCULAR : NO LONGER A CHOICE BUT AN URGENT NECESSITY

@BernardMerkx


BUT


RECYCLATES FIRST !

Documents

«DOING NOTHING IS NOT AN OPTION»...«DOING NOTHING IS NOT AN OPTION» BERNARD MERKX Entrepreneur CEO GreenWavePlastics Co – founder WasteFreeOceans Honorary President PlasticsRecyclersEurope