Plastic Free Balearics, 4 islands with a common goal

This November has taken a very important first step in the fight against plastic in the Balearics and is that the project"Plastic Free Balearics" has been released. The project is to create a joint certification to certify those companies that reduce the use of plastic in their activity. Until now, Ibiza and Formentera had their own certification through the "Plastic Free Ibiza and Formentera"movement of IbizaPreservation,and on the other hand, the Save the Med Foundation had developed the program"Balears Sense Pl'stic"in Mallorca, designing a tool to evaluate the environmental behavior of its partners. The project is co-financed by beyond Plastic Med (BeMed) and lasts an estimated 18 months.

The "Plastic Free Balearics" initiative will create a joint methodology,to be applied in the same way on all islands, unifying the criteria, parameters to be analyzed, etc. The certification is mainly aimed at the hospitality, catering and cafeteria sector, although other sectors that are interested will not be excluded, at least on the island of Menorca.

For Menorca, which did not yet have any specific certification to assess and certify the plastic reduction of local companies, but that the Alliance Plastic Free Menorca had been marked as one of the main objectives to be developed this first year, will imply having the methodology to start certification in the coming months. The Alliance is as a beneficiary of the project and therefore will be able to make use of the methodology resulting from "Plastic Free Balearics".

Beyond the growing awareness and environmental awareness shown by local businesses, Law 8/2019 on waste and contaminated soils in the Balearic Islands will prohibit from March 2021 certain single-use products, especially in the hospitality, catering and retail sectors. For this reason, this certification is even more important, that the Alliance Plastic Free Menorca is proposed as a process of accompaniment, advice, and finally, a certification for all those companies that carry actions to eliminate plastic. Therefore, local companies will be able to comply with the law, obtain a certification (the commitment will be evaluated through the degree of reduction of plastic in the activity) and be accompanied throughout this process by the Plastic Free Menorca.

For more information, you can contact us by email at info@plasticfreemenorca.org.

Photograph by Willy Uribe