New resources for Menorca to end plastic use

New resources for Menorca to end plastic use

Plastic Free Menorca Alliance launches a website, a certification for companies and a mobile app, amongst other communication and promotion tools

The Plastic Free Menorca was officially launched on 14 September with the signing of the Collaboration Agreement between the five organisations that comprise it: Per la Mar Viva, Foundation for the Preservation of Menorca, GOB Menorca, Leader Association Illa de Menorca and the Instituto Menorquín de Estudios via the Socioenvironmental Observatory of Menorca.

Bringing citizens closer

In these first three months, the Alliance has created the www.plasticfreemenorca.org website, with various resources, a diary and a blog. These tools enable the alliance to communicate content of interest to citizens and companies. They have also opened Facebook and Instagram accounts (@plasticfreemenorca). Via social media, the Alliance proposes and promotes a variety of advice to reduce plastic: how to go to school without using plastic, how to go shopping without plastic or how to enjoy a plastic-free Christmas holiday. They also share photographs and videos online to help recognise the differences between plastics and natural elements, as well as identifying the presence of plastics in the island’s natural and urban environments.

Through GoZeroWaste, the Alliance has presented the "Move for Zero Plastic in Menorca” project to the Foundation for the Preservation of Menorca, which includes creating a mobile app and a series of activities to encourage people to incorporate good practices related to the use of plastic. The project has received financing worth € 6,000 from the Foundation and we expect the mobile app to be active in March.

Plastic-free companies

The Alliance has started working with two organisations - Save the Medand IbizaPreservation (the entity promoting Plastic Free Ibiza and Formentera) - in the creation of Plastic-Free Balearics, a certification for every company in the Balearic Islands that reduces its use of single-use plastics.The project is co-financed by BeMed (Beyond Plastic Med). Plastic Free Menorca takes part as a beneficiary, so they will have access to any methodology that emerges from the project and will be able to apply it to the island. The aim is to get 20 companies on board during the “test drive” section of the project. We’re hoping the certification can be implemented in Menorca in March or April.

Promotional actions

The Plastic Free Menorca platform has donated books related to the reduction of plastic use and the problem of plastics to the libraries of the island: “Living without Plastic”, to the Ferreries Library; “Free Yourself from Toxics”, to the Ciutadella Library; “Better without Plastic”, to the Castell Library; and “Families without Plastic”, to the Sant Lluís and the Es Castell libraries. The children’s story “La Ballena Llena” was given to the Sant Lluís Library – they turned the donation into an event by organising a storytelling session.

In these first three months of activity, the Alliance has also presented a poster for the project at the MICRO 2020 International Conference on plastic pollution (from “macro” to “nano”).Coinciding with the European Week of Waste Prevention, they have organised a series of talks in various towns of the island explaining how to prevent the generation of plastic waste.

Next steps

The efforts of the alliance in the next few months will focus on the implementation of the Plastic-Free Balearics certification; creating a guide of local shops that offer alternatives to plastic; getting to know products that are alternatives to plastic; finding alternatives to plastic from providers and distributors on the island; and starting the “Move for Zero Plastic” projects with GoZeroWaste.

The Alliance has requested € 8,175 to BeMed to develop the “Expanding Knowledge and Local Action on Plastics” project. In March we find out the results of this grant application.