Progress in Plastic Pollution Reduction 

 

The Balearic Islands are the autonomous community in Spain that generate the most waste per capita and have the second highest consumption of bottled water. Stopping plastic pollution has become both a global and local cause. 

 

Save the Med’s Plastic Reduction team has been successfully working to reduce plastic consumption at its source, focusing on the prevention of waste. Great progress has been made since the project began in 2018. 

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During 2023, the team has been working on strengthening and improving the project's tools and methodologies to further reduce society's dependence on single-use plastics in other regions and sectors. New services will include: a waste prevention consultancy with an emphasis on plastics, training for companies and organisations, as well as a R&D&I focused Eco-Innovation Lab to find honest alternatives to single-use plastics.

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HAPI – the Honest Alternatives to Plastics Index (HAPI) is an innovative tool that evaluates, and eventually reduces, the plastic footprint of companies in the hospitality industry and beyond. It is currently being used to calculate the impact of businesses who want to get certified in the Plastic Free Balearics Programme. During these last five years, the index has been tried and tested successfully as it analysed, rated and improved products and packaging systems associated with food, beverages, cleaning items and personal hygiene items.

 

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“Plastic Free Balearics (PFB) is an objective and standardised plastic-free certification, created to prevent the generation of plastic waste in the hospitality industry, one of the island’s top pollutants when it comes to plastic. It helps businesses, hotels, restaurants and cafeterias to reduce their consumption upstream, preventing the use of single-use items.”  

- Plastic Prevention Project team

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ACTIONS 

 

• We worked on a new digital platform to be used as a self-evaluation tool for companies who want to measure their use of single-use items. The platform is in its Alpha testing phase and will be launched in 2024.

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• In 2023, thanks to the help of Medwaves and GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), our plastic reduction methodology went international, reaching municipalities in Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Lebanon.

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• We evaluated the plastic footprint and provided expert consultation to 35 different companies in the hospitality industry thanks to funding from Consell de Mallorca and Fundación Sa Nostra. As a result, 7,159 kg of plastic waste was prevented.

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• We provided training for staff at Nubia Market, an online sales platform in the hospitality sector. The training helped the team to identify Honest Alternatives to Single-Use Plastics and promote responsible consumption in sales and distribution. Training was provided with the financial support of the Consell de Mallorca, Department of Economic Promotion and Local Development.

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• We conducted a successful environmental training programme for over 700 people, aimed at young professionals and groups who are at risk of exclusion. Topics included habitat degradation, behaviour change and solution-focused actions.

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• We joined campaigns and actions of the “Pact for Reuse”, a union of entities, associations and companies in the Balearic Islands created in 2021 to promote reusable systems.