The second phase of the CAPonLITTER project was concluded with the final project meeting and high-level dissemination event, organised by Zero Waste Europe in Brussels, on 16 and 17 of May. The in-person high-level event with the title “Zero Waste at the Coast” was the occasion to present some of the best practice initiatives on waste prevention implemented by coastal municipalities and regions involved in the CAPonLITTER project.
The event was divided into two main sessions, each one organised in the form of panel discussions. The first panel was dedicated to the presentations of project partner action plans and how the envisaged actions are ongoing, and the second panel was focused on how the presented best practices can influence the policy-making. More about the final event you can find here.
In the first session, representative of PP3-IRENA-Istrian Regional Energy Agency, Mr Andrea Poldrugovac presented the “Action plan for dealing with plastic waste in Labin area” and the progress of the implementation phase. The action plan influences a policy instrument with local character in order to achieve goals initially set by project CAPonLITTER, “Joint waste management plan for the area of City of Labin and municipalities of Raša, Kršan, Sveta Nedelja and Pićan for the period 2017-2022”.
The action plan envisages two actions resulting from identified problems at the regional level and influenced by the interregional exchange of experiences in the project CAPonLITTER. The first one, “Substitution of Substitution of common single-use plastic items with environmentally acceptable alternatives” was designed due to the identified problems of mass tourism and seasonal growth of single-use plastic items on the beaches and due to the lack of recycling and plastic reuse practices in the Labin area. The action envisages the identification of suitable products to be replaced, the identification of suitable replacement material that would better fit into the prolonged life cycle and circular economy concepts, organisation of workshops with elementary schools in the area equipped with 3D printing devices being able to manufacture the designed products and organisation of raising awareness activities, particularly with youth. In May, IRENA organised two workshops with students of the elementary schools of Vladimir Nazor from Potpićan and Ivan Batelić from Raša. The aim of the workshops was to familiarize the students with the problem of marine litter, highlight the problem of plastic waste with special reference to microplastics and their impact on plant and especially animal life, as well as to familiarize the students with the basics of the process of recycling waste and its possible reuse using the example of 3D printing and use of recycled materials. Photos from the workshops can be found here.
The second presented action, “Reduction of beach littering with slow degrading items“, was dedicated to the emerging problem of improper disposal of cigarette butts, which are particularly often found on the beaches and on the coastal line. Following the identified problems, in June IRENA will install four stands equipped with cardboard ashtrays on the most visited beaches in the Labin area.
