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Dossier

Dossier

Plastic waste

US researchers have calculated that more than eight billion tons of plastic have been produced since the 1950s. About five billion tons of it is waste today. This plastic waste is to be found in landfills, in the open, and in the oceans. In our dossier, we present the Clean Oceans Initiative co-founded by KfW five year ago and other innovative approaches to preventing and processing plastic waste.

Image-Reference

On our website, pictures taken, among others, by the following photographers/photo agencies are used:

Agentur photothek.net, Deutsche Messe Hannover, Andreas Arnold, Jörg Böthling, Dominik Butzmann, Carsten Costard, Susanne Esche, Charlie Fawell, Rendel Freude, Torsten George, Gaby Gerster, David Greedy, Peter Himsel, Barbara Högner, Frank Homann, Fred Hoogervorst, Steffen Jagenburg (BRANSCH EUROPE), Thomas Klewar, Studio Kohlmeier , Florian Kopp, Georg Lopata, Jürgen Lösel, Kirsten Milhahn, Rüdiger Nehmzow, Rolf Obertreis, Rubén Arnaldo Farina Ortiz, Holger Peters, Joachim Röttgers, Mika Schmidt, Bernhard Schurian, Jens Steingässer, Pietro Sutera, Uwe Tölle, Jan Zappner.

Fotolia.com: amandare, Yuri Arcurs, Kitch Bain, Ingo Bartussek, Sergio Donà, drizzd, Dmitry Ersler, eyewave, Zoltán Futó, Eric Gevaert, Fotolia XXV, Friedberg, goodluz, Dirk Hoffmann, imageteam, Christian Jung, Abdelhamid Kalai, Sergej Khakimullin, Vladimir Kolobov, krizz7, Kzenon, lumen-digital, marog-pixcells, Mindwalker, Miredi, mirpic, Nebuto, Tino Neitz, Christian Pedant, Franz Pfluegl, prognone, Gina Sanders, Henry Schmitt, spree berlin, SVLuma, Kheng Guan Toh, tom, Torbz, typomaniac, VRD, Joachim Wendler, Sreedhar Yedlapati.

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How to get the seas clean again

How does plastic waste actually get into the sea? And what can we do to get the oceans clean again? KfW has an idea – and acts! To learn more about this, watch our animated film.

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Garbage collector Jumini

Millions against rubbish

How can the plastic pollution of our oceans be stopped? A multi-million dollar waste project financed by KfW in Indonesia shows that the battle against marine litter must also be fought on land.

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To the article
Ellizabeth Rantoetse at her sink

Cape Town’s road to clean water

Cape Town's sewage plants are overburdened. The city' s wastewater often flows unfiltered into the sea. The outdated sewage treatment plants are now being modernised. It is the first project of the European Clean Oceans Initiative.

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Read article about start-up Wildplastic
Plastic granulate

A bag tidies up

Around five billion tonnes of plastic are in the environment – especially in countries without adequate recycling systems. Wildplastic collects this waste and uses it to produce rubbish bags. For its environmental and social idea, the company received the Special Social Entrepreneurship award in KfW’s business competition.

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child playing at a garbage-filled lake

Wave upon wave

More than eleven million tonnes of plastic make their way into our oceans every year and a large proportion of this waste is carried there by rivers. The Aachen based start-up Everwave has developed technology that can be used to help collect this waste. The company was honoured with the KfW Entrepreneurs’ Award for its efforts.

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Bracelets in different colors, made from old fishing nets

Protecting oceans with jewellery

Madeleine von Hohenthal and Benjamin Wenke salvage abandoned fishing nets and then use them to manufacture bracelets and other products. Their company, Bracenet, was honoured with the special Social Entrepreneurship prize as part of the KfW Entrepreneurs' Award.

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To the interview
Waste collectors in Egypt

Egypt tackles its waste problem

KfW is helping the emerging economy set up a modern waste management system to reduce the amount of plastic waste that ends up in the Mediterranean. KfW experts Barbara Ölz and Sebastian Aichele on reforming the waste sector in Egypt.

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Fewer uncontrolled waste dumps

KfW is supporting controlled waste recycling and disposal in Albania with funds from the German Federal Government and EU grants. The uncontrolled waste dumps there have become a major problem for the country, neighbouring states and the Mediterranean.

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Superseven

Cellulose film against plastic waste

While the world is being littered with plastics and microplastics that do not decompose, the start-up Superseven, winner of the KfW Entrepreneurs’ Award 2018 in the “people’s choice”, is offering an environmentally-friendly alternative. And the interest in it is tremendous.

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Bio-Lutions plate

Disposable tableware without plastic

A company is tackling the plastic waste challenge: Bio-Lutions buys unused crop waste from Indian farmers. The German start-up uses the raw material and produces disposable tableware and packaging, which are fully compostable.

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Transforming plastic waste into raw material

Huge quantities of plastic flow through the Ganges Delta out into the sea, which is why recycling is so important here. With support from DEG, a Dutch packaging company has teamed up with a local partner to launch a plastics recycling start-up in Bangladesh.

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Bag from Meehr

From a fishing net to a shopping bag

What was once used to pull fish out of the water is now used to carry groceries. The student start-up Meehr produces bags made from used fishing nets in order to offer an alternative to plastic bags and combat plastic waste in the sea.

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To the award-winner portrait
production of Unicaps

Coffee capsules without aluminium and plastic

UniCaps has developed a capsule made from renewable raw materials and fills it with organically grown coffee and tea. The Brandenburg-based company was presented with the KfW Entrepreneurs' Award 2019 for this sustainable idea.

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Plastic waste washed upon the shore

The poison in our oceans

Plastic waste is a threat to our oceans' ecosystems as animals mistake waste for food and die in cruel circumstances. Dr Ralph Kadel, former member of the Management Board of Blue Action Fund, sets out possible solutions.

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To the picture gallery
Plastic waste

Endangered diversity

Plastic waste gets stuck in coral reefs and mangrove forests and destroys sensitive ecosystems. Our picture gallery takes you to Indonesia: an area with the highest marine biodiversity worldwide, but also extreme waste concentration.

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