Surfrider Foundation Europe is a Non-Governmental Organisation (Association under the Law of 1901) dedicated to the protection and enhancement of the coastal environment. Its aim is the “defence, preservation, enhancement and sustainable management of the sea, the beaches, the waves and the population that enjoys it”.

Thanks to its paid Co-ordinators throughout Europe, its network of volunteer outposts (of which there are nearly 50) and more than 1000 volunteers, Surfrider has been able to implement various environmental protection initiatives.

These include the “Ocean Initiatives”, a worldwide campaign of raising awareness of the existence of macro-waste (waste of human origin present in the environment) accompanied by a clean-up campaign for the beaches and shores that is held annually. Local residents, clubs and other associations are invited to run their own clean-ups and consciousness-raising initiatives, with help of Surfrider hardware and software. With more than 800 “Ocean Initiatives” operations being held simultaneously in 2010, this means that several hundreds of cubic metres of macro-waste has been removed from beaches, thus serving to maintain awareness of the issue for the whole of society.

The awareness-raising campaigns led by Surfrider are also held on a more local scale, for instance, running environmental awareness operations with employees of companies such as Electrolux. The litter collection operation, in connection with the Vac from the Sea project, lasted for about two hours and nearly a cubic metre of macro-waste was removed. Seventy per cent of it consisted of plastic.

Benjamin van Hoorebeke, responsible for education at Surfrider Foundation Europe, explains the aim of this type of operation:

“Bringing the employees of a company such as Electrolux out into the field is vital for sensitizing them to the problem of macro-waste. They are thus able to see for themselves the extent of the pollution, encouraging them to improve the way they behave every day in their personal and working lives. This action, which is more than curative, finds its real usefulness in teaching ecologically responsible behaviour, so as to reduce pollution before it happens, rather than deal with the consequences thereafter.”

Previous Posts:
Robot Uses Lasers to Sort Plastic
The Majestic Plastic Bag
Making a People’s Vac
Start Collecting!
Eternal Debris
One Word
Date Set for Clean Up in Thailand
5 Gyres: Crossing the Gyres
5 Gyres: Plastic in the World's Oceans
Mainly Blue and White Plastic on Hawaiian Beaches
Understanding the Nature of Plastic Accumulation
Collecting Debris from the Pacific Ocean
Swedish News Channel Raises the Plastic Debris Issue
What is Plastic?
Plastiki Just Arrived in Sydney
Sustainable Futures - Can Design Make a Difference?
Creating Art out of Plastic Debris
Recycling Plastic - a Challenge
Date Set for Hawaii
At the Design Studio
Collecting Debris in Skagerrak, the North Sea
Fragile Coast
Making the Vacs
Collecting Plastic in the South of France
What is the Pacific Garbage Patch?
Plastic Recycling
Welcome to Vac from the Sea 
 

Ranije ove godine, stručnjaci sa sveučilišta u Osaki otkrili su reciklirajućeg robota koji koristi laser za sortiranje različitih vrsta plastike. Većinu plastike je moguće reciklirati, ali samo 6% završi u recikliranom smeću. PET i PS je moguće reciklirati, ali njihova stopa proizvodnje je niska - odnosno, 5 i 7.6% od cijele proizvodnje plastike. PE i PP nije moguće reciklirati jer se ne mogu izdvojiti od oka, dok je njihova stopa proizvodnje najviša - odnosno 23 i 22%. Reciklirajući robot ima laserske 'oči' i senzore koji mogu razdvojiti 6 različitih vrsta plastika za lakše recikliranje.

Utvrđujući put reciklaži mnogim vrstama plastike, očekuje se veliko smanjenje emisije CO2. Reciklirajućeg robota nećemo uskoro koristiti u svojim domovima (cijena mu je $55,000), ali stručnjaci sa Sveučilišta u Osaki se nadaju da će proizvesti manju verziju koja će stati u normalnu kuhinju, odmah do kante za recikliranje i kante za smeće. Robot je dizajniran: by IDEC, the Photonics Advanced Research Center, i Mitsubishi Electric Engineering. Cijeli projekt je podržan od Ministra Ekonomije, Trgovine i Industrije, u Japanu.   

Izvor: Osaka University, Japan.

Prethodni postovi:
The Majestic Plastic Bag
Making a People’s Vac
Start Collecting!
Eternal Debris
One Word
Date Set for Clean Up in Thailand
5 Gyres: Crossing the Gyres
5 Gyres: Plastic in the World's Oceans
Mainly Blue and White Plastic on Hawaiian Beaches
Understanding the Nature of Plastic Accumulation
Collecting Debris from the Pacific Ocean
Swedish News Channel Raises the Plastic Debris Issue
What is Plastic?
Plastiki Just Arrived in Sydney
Sustainable Futures - Can Design Make a Difference?
Creating Art out of Plastic Debris
Recycling Plastic - a Challenge
Date Set for Hawaii
At the Design Studio
Collecting Debris in Skagerrak, the North Sea
Fragile Coast
Making the Vacs
Collecting Plastic in the South of France
What is the Pacific Garbage Patch?
Plastic Recycling
Welcome to Vac from the Sea

Narrated by Academy Award-winner Jeremy Irons, this "mockumentary" video, stresses the reality of California's plastic bag pollution situation. The video were released by the Heal the Bay organization in Santa Monica, California. as promo in support of California bill AB 1998 to help put an end to plastic pollution. Heal the Bay’s efforts are focused on Santa Monica Bay and surrounding Southern California coastal waters. Their work, however, often impacts water quality for the entire state of California and even the whole U.S.

Previous Posts:
Making a People’s Vac
Start Collecting!
Eternal Debris
One Word
Date Set for Clean Up in Thailand
5 Gyres: Crossing the Gyres
5 Gyres: Plastic in the World's Oceans
Mainly Blue and White Plastic on Hawaiian Beaches
Understanding the Nature of Plastic Accumulation
Collecting Debris from the Pacific Ocean
Swedish News Channel Raises the Plastic Debris Issue
What is Plastic?
Plastiki Just Arrived in Sydney
Sustainable Futures - Can Design Make a Difference?
Creating Art out of Plastic Debris
Recycling Plastic - a Challenge
Date Set for Hawaii
At the Design Studio
Collecting Debris in Skagerrak, the North Sea
Fragile Coast
Making the Vacs
Collecting Plastic in the South of France
What is the Pacific Garbage Patch?
Plastic Recycling
Welcome to Vac from the Sea

Plastic debris in the ocean concerns us all. Up until now, we have worked together with different kinds of organizations to collect plastic from the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean and the North Sea. For the Baltic Sea – why not involve the man or woman on the street? Or more precisely – the man or woman on the sea.

This weekend, on Saturday August 27^th, we set off for Sandhamn, a small half-island in the Stockholm archipelago. The aim of the trip: encourage people that live close to the water and travel across it to collect pieces of plastic they come across when out at sea, and send the plastic to us. Out of the plastic collected, a Vac from the Baltic Sea, co-created by people, will be produced.

Sandhamn is known for its sailing and on this particular day, there were not only one, but two sailing races taking place. Needless to say, the harbor was packed. A great number of people wanted to help the cause and do the Baltic Sea a favor.  

Nema preciznih brojki o tome koliko se plastike reciklira.

Prema izvještaju „Nepobitne činjenice o plastici 2009, analiza europske proizvodnje plastike, potražnje i obnavljanja za 2008“, u Europi se reciklira otprilike 20% potrošačke plastike, ali su i razlike unutar ovog dijela svijeta vrlo velike.