Join a waste free San Juan!
WHAT´S IT ABOUT?
Around the Mediterranean it is a custom to welcome the summer by celebrating the Night of San Juan on the beach together with family and friends.
From as long as can be remembered, purification, represented by candles and bonfires, has been the fundamental value of this night. However nowadays, due to the use of single use products such as plastic utensils, take away containers and drinking bottles, our beaches end up littered with tons and tons of man made rubbish. Very commonly the waste that is produced during the celebration ends up in the sea where it severly affects marine life.
The San Juan #zerowaste initiative aims to bring back the true meaning of the celebration while putting a stop to plastic pollution and its negative consequences. We want to show that this night can be celebrated without polluting our beaches!
Each year we organise a waste free event at the Portixol beach in Palma and engage others in organising a waste free San Juan night on their local beach together with family and friends.
Since the start of the pandemic, we have celebrated the event in new ways. In 2020 we organised an insightful online screening of the documentary The Story of Plastic combined with a online debate with scientists, including Dr. Nicolás Olea, a world renown specialist in the effects of plastic pollution on human health.
This year we are organising a Photographic Exhibition named “The Hidden Plastics”, to highlight some of the items that most of us use on a daily basis without necessarily realising that they are made of plastic and cause harm to the environment and to our health.
The opening of the exhibition will take place on the Portixol promenade the 23rd of June along with a performance. Visitors will be able to visit stands with alternatives to plastic that we can all integrate in our everyday lives to help reduce the amount of waste we generate.
Following the event on the 23rd of June, the exhibition will be exhibited in different parts of the island.
Why is it important?
REFUSE • REFLECT • REDUCE
Plastic is not biodegradable. Over time, it only breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces yet its chemical composition remains the same.
Plastic is already polluting all our seas. In the enormous oceanic gyres, there are now more plastic fragments than plankton, which is the foundation of all life in the sea.
The millions of animals that are killed by plastic all over the world suffer a cruel and agonizing death through ingestion, toxicity, suffocation or entanglement.
Some of the additives used in the production of plastic products have been associated with disorders and diseases that can affect humans, even fetuses and newborn babies.
REFUSE
REFLECT
REDUCE
Become a part of the solution
IT’S JUST A MATTER OF AWARENESS
“Every second, more than 200 kilos of plastic reach the oceans.”
“It’s estimated that each year, 9.1 milliones of tonnes of plastic make their way from land based sources into the oceans.”
“5 billion plastic particles float on the sea surface. The Mediterranean accumulates around 1,455 tonnes of plastic on its surface.”
“70% of plastic accumulates on the sea bed, meaning that the waste that is visible to us is only the tip of the iceberg.”
“100% of sand samples from beaches around the world are contaminated by microplastics, tiny toxic particles that are mixed up with the sand.”
“It is estimated that each year, plastic kills one million seabirds and more than 100,000 marine mammals and turtles.”
“A study shows that plastic made up between 42% and 80% of the items ingested by fish collected in different areas of Mallorca and Ibiza.”
“In Spain, up to 50 million plastic beverage containers are placed on the market every day”
“In Spain, 5,000 million water bottles are used every year. Worldwide the number rises to around 89,000 million of water bottles yearly.”
“Each European citizen uses about 238 plastic bags per year. Each bag takes hundreds of years to begin to degrade, and the degradation process takes at least another 400 years.”
“In the US only, 500 millones straws are used each day.”
“Cigarette butts are one of the most littered items in the world. Each year, 4,950,000 million cigarette butts end up in the environment. One single cigarette butt can contaminate 7 liters of water in one hour.“
The Hidden Plastics
PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION
Presentation
Plastics have infiltrated our lives, often without us knowing it, because either we do not know how to identify them on labels, or manufacturers are often not required to indicate the materials used in the manufacture of products.
This exhibition aims to help you identify these hidden plastics, and finally to propose some solutions.
Until we address the problem of the existence of these countless hidden plastics, we will continue to find their harmful particles in our air, water and everywhere else.
We welcome you to open your eyes! For your health, the health of the Balearic ecosystems and the health of the planet.
