Seventy percent of the earth?s surface consists of water ? water, filled with plastic. Beaches and oceans are buried in litter, as evidenced by the cleanup results obtained from the Cleanwave.org initiative. One and a half million plastic bottles are thrown away every single day ? and that is just the tip of the iceberg for the Balearic islands. Only a third of the discarded bottles reach recycling centres, with around one million bottles unaccounted for. These non-biodegradable plastic bottles inevitably end up dispersed on beaches, lost in forests, and floating around at sea, where fish and birds mistake regular plastic and microplastics for food.
Oceanic plastic pollution is a global threat that requires local action - every single one of us needs to change and rethink single-use plastic - to think and act in a sustainable way. The aim of LifeXperiences, in collaboration with Cleanwave.org, is to spread awareness about this global plastic threat, while offering concrete alternatives for our daily single-use plastic consumption.
At all LifeXperience events, incentives, and meetings, participants receive an individually branded, fair trade, stainless-steel Cleanwave bottle. These bottles symbolise a plastic-free movement, giving organizations the opportunity to incorporate corporate social responsibility in their activities. All LifeXperiences events offer plastic-free water logistics for the duration of the program, creating a true plastic-free movement.
We now offer sustainable activities to enhance the overall programs selected by our clients. These activities include beach cleanings collecting data for 'citizen science', defined as scientific work undertaken by members of the general public to collect data for scientist and lobbyists fighting for a solution to our single-use plastic threat. In addition, we offer visits to the islands waste treatment facility, combined with a talk and movie presentation by the founders of Cleanwave.org, emphasizing the impacts single-use plastic has on our planet while empowering participants to seek and discover solutions for the plastic problem.
During a LifeXperiences beach cleaning in December, about 100 participants collected and categorized plastic waste totalling over 30kg in 45 min, with the data collected sent to Citizen Science for publishing in their global database. These results allow for lobbyists and lawmakers and to apply pressure on global market players to decrease their single-use plastic emissions, allowing our clients from these programs to have a lasting impact on the global reduction of plastic waste.
Thanks to these sustainable initiatives and surveys, starting in Januray 2020 all plastic sticks from Qtips will be replaced with biodegradable paper, replacing their plastic predecessors - which can be found in the hundreds within an area of only 50 square meters along the beach.
17/12/2018, Ben