An event which considers and evaluates the management of marine litter in Venice

Seminar: new technologies for the management of marine litter in Venice

• Organisers: CNR ISMAR, VLPF, ISDI group
• Date: 31 May 2022
• Time: 10.00 – 12.30
• Location: International Boat Show of Venice – Torre di Porta Nuova dell’Arsenale di Venezia

The event aims to highlight the current marine litter management system in Venice in light of the recent approval of the ‘Salvamare’ (or ‘sea rescue’) regulation, which marks a turning point for the circular economy of marine waste in Italy. Within this context, the activities and efforts of various European projects will be presented, each supporting this technological and cultural step towards sustainable marine litter management in Italy and across Europe.

The MAELSTROM and In-No-Plastic projects will be presented, as well as their removal and plastic pollution monitoring activities in the Venetian lagoon. Alongside this, the activities performed by Italo-Croatian project MARLESS and by WWF Plastic Smart Cities (signed by the Municipality of Venice) will be presented.

Speakers include: Senator Andrea Ferrazzi, member of the 13^th standing committee (local area, environment, environmental goods); Fantina Madricardo, coordinator of H2020 MAELSTROM project; Davide Poletto, director of Venice Lagoon Plastic Free and spokesperson for H2020 In-No-Plastic project; Giorgio Bagordo, manager of WWF Plastic Smart Cities initiative for Italy; Andrea Torresan, ARPAV, representative of interregional Italo-Croatian project MARLESS.

A day dedicated to state-of-the-art European technologies for the removal of marine litter and for the circular economy; International Workshop at Venice’s Boat Show

Second edition of international workshop ‘Removal of Marine Litter and Circular Economy: Challenges and Opportunities’

• Organisers: CNR ISMAR, VLPF, CIMA RESEARCH FOUNDATION, ISDI group
• Date: 1 June 2022
• Time: 10.00 – 17.00
• Location: International Boat Show of Venice at the CNR ISMAR headquarters 

 This event will present innovative and sustainable technologies for the removal and recycling of marine litter – particularly plastics – creating a chance for large industrial entities, start-ups, and NGOs to meet. The workshop is the second annual event held as part of the MAELSTROM (coordinated by CNR ISMAR) and In-No-Plastic (coordinated by Norwegian SINTEF) projects, both financed as part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme. Within this context, technological clusters will be presented by the most promising voices in the blue circular economy: an economy which focuses upon the oceans and seas of our planet. It would be remiss also not to mention the long-awaited and recently approved ‘Salvamare’ law (i.e. ‘sea rescue’) which will be presented by Senator Andrea Ferrazzi: member of the 13^th standing committee (local area, environment, environmental goods) of Italy.

The workshop will house representatives of other European projects, as well as independent entrepreneurs working in planning and experimentation for innovative marine litter collection devices, through technology aimed at the circular economy.

The event, which will take place from 10.00 to 17.00, will act as an important opportunity for the following European H2020 projects to share scientific and technical knowledge: MAELSTROM, In-No-Plastic, CLEARSEA and MARLESS. The day will be divided into three sessions with roundtables and Q&A sessions, and will take place as a hybrid event, both in-person and online, in CNR ISMAR’s Venice office.

The first part of the workshop will be dedicated to the technologies developed by the projects aimed at the removal of marine litter. These technologies have been/are being designed to intercept a large amount of plastic of different sizes, from macro- to nanoplastics, in order to reduce its accumulation in marine and coastal ecosystems. This allows us to intervene at a preventative level, thanks to special devices which can be installed in river areas.

The second part of the day will be centred around the idea of the circular economy, concentrating on ways that we can give new life to the plastics collected from seas or beaches using innovative chemical and mechanical systems. This objective, which is of great importance in finding a global solution to the problem, directly involves (but not exclusively) a number of technological and industrial partners of the projects mentioned above. The rest of the party is made up of associations, start-ups, and industrial companies in Venice and throughout Italy.

The third part of the workshop will identify the characteristically strategic elements needed to accelerate the implementation of these technologies aimed at the removal and recycling of marine litter, through both chemical and mechanical processes. The key elements which emerge from the discussion will be processed and then presented as a join recommendation and policy document to the Italian government, the European Commission, and the United Nations. The document will also touch upon the future Global Treaty of the United Nations on plastic pollution.

Organisers: The international workshop is co-organised by: CNR ISMAR and NGO Venice Lagoon Plastic Free, in collaboration with the Venice Boat Show, CIMA Research Foundation and ISDI Group.

International clean-up event: canals, Venice Lagoon, and smaller islands at the lagoon outskirts

International clean-up event: canals, Venice Lagoon, and smaller islands at the lagoon outskirts

• Organisers: VLPF (Venice Lagoon Plastic Free)
• Date: 2 June 2022
• Time: 9.30 – 15.30

The workshop ties in both theoretically and operationally with Venice Lagoon Clean-up Day on 2^nd June, in cooperation with VERITAS and with vast participation organised by Venice Lagoon Plastic Free. This event will use the mobile application already successfully developed as part of the MAELSTROM project.

It is important to note that the clean-up sites have been identified and subsequently verified by LIPU (the Italian Association for the Protection of Birds) in order to guarantee maximum respect towards the environment, and to avoid any potential disturbance of the bird species living in the clean-up areas.

Contacts:

Fantina Madricardo, PhD	Davide Poletto, PhD
ISMAR-CNR	Venice Lagoon Plastic Free
fantina.madricardo@ve.ismar.cnr.it	d.poletto@plasticfreevenice.org
Tel (+39) 041 2407986	Mob.: +39 348 693 2537
Mob (+39) 347 4983049	https://www.plasticfreevenice.org
www.ismar.cnr.it	https://www.innoplastic.eu/
www.maelstrom-h2020.eu

The international workshop and clean-up are recognised as EU Green Week events: an important week dedicated to European environmental politics. The theme of this year’s EU Green Week, Make it Real,  covers an ample range of themes and sectors, from industry to new technologies which benefit biodiversity and the fight against climate change.

Link to event:

https://cnronline.webex.com/cnronline/j.php?MTID=m7f138cc9a33e6851cbd0e3e778ab916d