An Overview Of Our Solution
Plastic Oceans Europe, a branch of Plastic Oceans International, is dedicated to ending plastic pollution within all marine and freshwater sources throughout the continent. We join the entire Plastic Oceans team in the effort to inform, inspire and incite action that can solve plastic pollution. We operate with the belief that we can and must act locally in order to create change globally, and we do so through four key pillars of activity: Education, Activism, Advocacy and Science.Through supportive programs aligned with our pillars, and driven by embracing the circular economy, our mission is to inspire and incite action that can lead to changes in consumer behavior, corporate practices and public policy.
- Population Impacted: 10,000
- Continent: Europe
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Analyse du contexte
The amount of water needed to make a plastic bottle is 6 to 7 times its content. This means, when we drink 1 litre of bottled water, we are actually consuming more than 7 litres of it. In 2021, it is estimated we will use 583,300,000 plastic water bottles. Almost 20,000 bottles per second! 9% is recycled, but the rest end up in landfills, groundwater, rivers and oceans, and consequently turn into microplastics that animals and humans end up ingesting.In many cities in the world, tap water is highly contaminated, resulting in residents and tourists buying bottled water to drink or cook. This is not only an ecological problem, but it also is increasingly becoming a social and health challenge. Additionally, due to the high rate at which plastic is consumed, the city’s possibility of being able to recycle all of it is continuously reduced. The high volumes of plastic waste is a burden not only on governments´ budgets for waste facilities but on the waste management processes.
Décrivez la solution technique que vous voudriez voir le public cible adopter.
Water We Doing aims to create awareness around the impact of plastic in our natural environment, and to minimise/eliminate single-use plastic bottles. To do this, we will provide TAPP Water filters to diverse households across Europe (starting in Barcelona) to use and test. Through audiovisual content, we will be following the process of each household as they switch to an alternative source of healthy drinking water and a mini-documentary series will be created to share their stories. The main objective of this project is to show, first hand, the benefits of water filters over bottled water for any type of household, for the people and the earth. By communicating the benefits of water filters for health, economic and environmental reasons, we believe plastic consumption and contamination will be reduced across Europe.
Décrivez votre intervention comportementale.
Through a partnership between TAPP Water and POE, filters will be donated and distributed to different households across Europe. TAPP Water filters will be provided at no cost, alongside information about the benefits of filtering tap water for health and the environment. This not only will appeal to the people’s emotions and values regarding taking care of the natural environment, but also to their health, comfort and wallet. People will see the economic benefit of reducing their water consumption cost to almost zero, but also the benefit of saving time and energy by eliminating their efforts to have to buy water, carry it home, store empty plastic containers and disposing of them. These benefits combined will motivate individuals and families to want to try this alternative source of healthy water.
Leviers comportementaux utilisés
Au besoin, veuillez expliquer comment vous avez utilisé le ou les leviers avec plus de détails.
By documenting and sharing the journey of each household that receives a filter, we will change the norm of what is the right thing to do when it comes to drinking water. At the moment, many people don't realise there are easy alternatives to buying bottled water. The Water We Doing project aims to change this view and behavior by showing there is another way to obtain healthy water. Another way which is not only healthier (think no leaching toxins from plastic bottles), but also more economical and more environmentally friendly. We believe that now is the time, especially because of the COVID pandemic, to take the opportunity to shift people´s values towards more sustainable solutions in their everyday lives.
Décrivez votre mise en œuvre.
Our solution aims to show real life examples in order to create empathy and awareness of the alternatives to plastic bottles as a means of reducing and eliminating plastic pollution. Our implementation will consist of providing households with a free TAPP water filter, as well as informational session by TAPP + POE Team. Each household will document their experience with the filter comparing it with their previous way of water consumption explaining their benefits and problems. These stories will then be compiled into a series of mini-documentaries, which will be used as advocacy to create awareness to the general public and eventually local and national governments to change behaviors and habits regarding drinking water consumption. The fact that the stories will be filmed by the individuals who live the Water We Doing experience themselves, appeals to peoples’ empathy and identification as it gives credibility to the project. We will work with different types of households (mothers with children, old couples, low income families, among others) in order to create an unbiased base of stories and opinions. Our key success factors involve 1)Communicating the benefits of installing filters for both the people and the environment: Health, Convenience, Economic, and Environmental. 2)Showing these benefits to encourage more people to use them by audiovisually documenting various diverse experiences with TAPP Water filter subscriptions. 3)Encouraging local and central governments to help members of the general public to afford yearly subscriptions, through subsidies, tax breaks, etc. We plan to do this by creating impact reports from household data collection. Our research process will be fundamental as it may be hard to find families and individuals that are confortable with film themselves, being filmed, and having their images become public.
Décrivez le leadership de votre solution. Qui dirige la mise en œuvre?
Our leadership consists of 2 members of the POE Team, the Project Leader, also Social Media Expert, and the Production Manager, with the support of TAPP’s implementation team. We will be following the project as a team, with both the power of activism and the credibility of a purpose-driven company, in order to have a greater impact when communicating its results and effects.
Principaux intervenants et partenaires du programme
Our key partner is Tapp Water filters, a company that produces the world’s first smart biodegradable water filter produced for Europe and North America that anyone can install and that provides clean and fresh water directly from the tap in a sustainable way.
We will work together in the development and implementation of the solution, and will have the support of other Plastic Ocean’s partners regarding communication and diffusion.
While our main partner is Tapp Water Filters, we plan to connect with (local) governments in the following way. Getting a lot of people to switch from plastic water bottles to water filters, governments have to deal with a lot less plastic waste. Plastic waste that ends up in trash cans, but also waste that ends up in the streets, on beaches etc. By having to deal with less waste, governments can save immensely on waste management expenses, from collection, to transportation, to recycling to disposal.
We believe that this benefit will be important enough for governments to want to subsidize water filters not only to households, but also to diverse governmental and non-governmental institutions and organizations.
We are certain that this will also set an example to encourage private companies to implement this solution as well.
Qui a adopté le(s) comportement(s) souhaité(s) et dans quelle mesure?
We will facilitate the water filters and the information behind them to people, to show how easy it is to use the Tapp water filter and how it can save them money, better their health and that of the environment. But really, by having their own experience testing the filter, they will be convinced that using filtered water is the better and easier choice available to them.
Our behavioural change will be measured by counting the number of households that will decide to adopt the filter as their main drinking water system by the end of the project.
Quel a été votre impact sur la pollution de l'eau?
Our project impacts water pollution in such a way that less plastic bottles are consumed, which has a direct impact on transportation, usage and disposal of the amount of plastic used, and ultimately also on the production of plastics. By changing the mindset of people, this impact will have a ripple effect and turn this project into a potentially big change in people's everyday lives.
Quel a été l'impact de votre solution sur les problèmes d'équité?
We will target different types of households when distributing the Tapp Water Filters in order to make sure we include diverse gender, ethnic, social class and race groups, as well as different types of family units. This is important to us because we believe this solution is universal for all humanity, thus, fundamental for all types of people to experience and understand the benefits of water filters in order to grow the amount of households choosing this solution over plastic bottled water.
Due to the high economical cost plastic water bottles represent for low income families, the project will have a particular emphasis on this group.
Quels ont été les co-bénéfices environnementaux de votre solution?
Tapp Water filters save a lot of plastic water bottles but they are also biodegradable. The cartridges are entirely made out of non-toxic materials which remain inert after decomposing. The cartridges contain a high percentage of biodegradable and compostable material and can be disposed off with organic waste.
Quels ont été les avantages connexes de votre solution par rapport au développement durable?
Tapp Water has the mission to empower people to easily get clean and healthy water from tap, with a minimum environmental impact. They have developed an app with which people can track the money they save by not buying plastic water bottles and monitor their positive carbon footprint.
Durabilité : Décrivez la durabilité économique de votre solution.
Once we have been able to show people that Tapp Water filters are cheaper than buying bottled water, we can convince many people to switch to filtered water. For those who cannot afford a subscription, we aim to request (local) governments for subsidies for these people. Governments, after all, also benefit from less consumption of plastic bottles in terms of reduced costs in waste management. Another benefit, of course, is the health factor, an important social factor mentioned above.
Retour sur investissement : Combien a coûté la mise en œuvre de ces activités?
The initial cost of implementation includes the cost of the sum of all yearly TAPP Water Filter subscriptions donated (89 EUR per filter) and the production costs of creating and distributing the documentary mini series. Once the project is implemented in Barcelona and the doc series is communicated and distributed we will be able to measure and compare results.
Comment pourrions-nous reproduire cette solution ailleurs avec succès?
We plan on replicating this project in different cities around europe, especially in urban areas with high population density. We believe it is a very easy to replicate project as once households experience first hand the health, environmental and social benefits tapp filters provide them, they will be the first ones to want to recommend it to family, friends, and neighbours. Once this is implemented with good results, we will involve local governments.