Luc Mellaerts is this month launching the “Waste Free Oceans – The Americas” environmental initiative in the Dominican Republic, with the first workshop planned to take place in Casa de Campo.
The “Waste Free Oceans” started in Europe, an industry-led initiative, which aims to reduce floating marine debris on Europe’s coastlines, and following the success of the “European Waste Free Oceans” program, “Waste Free Oceans – The Americas” is being launched later this month with Luc Mellaerts as the Vice-President of “The Americas” division of the project.
“We need to restore the beauty of our seas and islands by acting together now. A lot of efforts will be needed and there is no time to waste. More collection and more recycling is badly needed in our region.” —– Luc Mellaerts, Vice-President of Waste Free Oceans – The Americas
To kick-start the project, the first “Waste Free Oceans – The Americas” official workshop entitled “Marine Debris, Yes we care about it!” is being held on Wednesday the 22nd of February at the Casa de Campo hotel. Participating in the workshop will be representatives from the E.U as well as key Dominican political figures such as the vice environmental ministor for the Dominican Republic, Patricia Abreu, who will learn about different issues that concern marine debris: The Global Marine Litter Declaration, ACP FISH II Programme, The Assessment and Management of Environmental Pollution, the view of the fishermen on marine debris and awareness raising and remediation activities.
Collecting marine debris
Perhaps the most important part of the workshop will be the demonstration of how floating marine debris can be collected with the fishing gear and nets – a method which we hope will soon be actively used by fisherman all over the Dominican Republic to start reducing the amount of debris and pollution found floating off of the coast of the country.
Speakers taking part in this first workshop will be: Mr Roberto Frankenberg- President of the Dominican industries of plastics (ADIPLAST), Mr Keith Christman- Managing Director of Plastic Markets at the American Chemistry Council’s Plastics Division, Ms Sandra Grant- Regional Manager for the Caribbean, Mr Christopher Corbin- United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Mr Mitchell Lay- leader of the Caribbean Network of Fisher folk Organization and Mr Alexandre Dangis- Managing Director of European Plastics Converters Association.
About WFO (Waste Free Oceans) Waste Free Oceans (WFO) is a ground breaking public-private initiative aimed at mobilizing and uniting the fisheries sector and the international plastics industry in combatting the growing issue of marine litter on the coastlines, at the rivers and in the seas.
Marine debris is a very real problem in the Dominican Republic and particularly in the area around nearby Catalina island (a beautiful island just off the coast of Casa de Campo.) Over the last year a number of “clean-up” initiatives have been led by the La Romana-Bayahibe cluster (tourism group) – collecting almost 200 bags of rubbish during each “clean- up” day. Let’s hope the “Waste Free Oceans” initiative can help us get and keep the seas of the Dominican Republic clean and waste free! [Click here to read more about “Operation Clean-Up at Isla Catalina”]
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