First Plastic Bag Free City in Europe – Finnish NGO Providing Households with an Alternative to Plastics
The campaign of “Plastic Bag Free Kerava” – project will provide every household in the city with a reusable multiuse carrier bag made from the sustainable Paptic® material.
“Plastic bag free Kerava” – project aims to make Kerava the first plastic bag free city in Finland and in Europe. The project also aims to profile Kerava as an ecological city that takes concrete steps towards a more sustainable future and provides an example that other cities and for example malls can follow.
Every year millions of tons of plastic waste end up in the nature and a large part of it is packaging. Single use plastic bags and packages have a high probability of ending up in nature. According to a recent study from WWF people could be ingesting or inhaling approximately 5 grams of plastic every week. This alarming fact has been an inspiration for the bags message and the design reads “Milloin Muutut Muoviksi?” which translates to: When will you become plastic?
– I knew from the beginning of the project that we would be working with Paptic at some point. With their material the replacement of plastics is effortless and it’s great to provide people with an alternative that is easily recycled and can be reused multiple times, says Mari Granström, the head of the project.
– Consumers are willing to use sustainable alternatives when they are brought to their attention and are readily available. The project has understood the phrase “think globally – act locally” and has done an amazing job of informing consumers. It´s hard to imagine a more concrete step forward, than providing a sustainable bag to every household in the city, says Esa Torniainen, CBDO & Co-Founder of Paptic Ltd.
WWF Finland, HOK-Elanto, Kesko, Alko, Posti, Musti ja Mirri, Sinebrychoff, Keski-Uudenmaan teatteri (KUT), Keski-Uusimaa and Kerava’s congregation are the main partners of the project. There are also other Kerava based companies involved. The city of Kerava is also committed on reducing the use of plastic bags.
Paptic is a Finnish startup-company which was founded in 2015 to address one of the largest global environmental challenges, the accumulation of plastic waste. Paptic’s mission is to work with sustainability-oriented companies and to help them make the transition from plastics to more environmental packaging alternatives.
For more information, please contact: