The project BALTIPLAST brings technological solutions to help public authorities reduce plastic waste and trigger investments in sustainable sorting and recycling.
Description
The project BALTIPLAST aimed at the prevention and reduction of plastic waste in the Baltic Sea Region, focusing on single-use plastic reduction, improvements in plastic packaging and innovative collection and treatment systems at the municipality level.
A consortium of partners from Germany, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania tested concrete solutions at three levels of operation: Strategic and management; technological/technical; communication/behaviour change. The project involved some key actors in the plastic waste value chain, primarily municipalities in the participating countries, as well as SMEs and large enterprises operating in the field of waste management. NGOs and interest groups will be involved in the dissemination of results.
UBC Sustainable Cities Commission was actively involved in the project, leading the transfer activities within the Work Package 3 to ensure the active dissemination of the project materials and outputs to the cities in the Baltic Sea Region. UBC SCC also developed concrete deliverables, including the educational kit for addressing plastic waste to raise the capacities of employees in municipal and public service providers to deploy the solutions locally. The Commission collaborated with the Lead partner together with the rest of the partnership on the launch of the main project output – the BALTIPLAST Plastic Waste Management Platform (BPWMP).
Activities
Within the project consortium partners have designed and piloted the solutions to address plastic waste reduction:
- Collection of the strategic and legal framework development pilots
- Soft measures for single-use plastic reduction at municipal entities, schools and businesses
- Technical/technological solutions for the collection and sorting of plastic
The collected experiences, lessons learned and recommendations are developed into the BALTIPLAST Plastic Waste Management Platform which acts as a solution hub for plastic waste management, reduction and prevention. The platform details how municipalities can develop strategies, action plans and guidance documents to limit single-use plastic. It also hosts an inventory tool designed for tracking and recording the amount of plastic waste and is accompanied by recommendations for reducing single-use plastic to aid the implementation of soft measures aiming to reduce plastic waste in municipal administration, schools, local businesses and households. Efficient handling of plastic waste is key in limiting plastic pollution, for this reason, recommendations for waste management facilities are also provided.
Results
BALTIPLAST developed and tested an integrated package of strategic, behavioural and technical solutions. Working closely with eight municipalities, the project co-created strategic frameworks focused on prevention, reuse and improved recycling. To tackle plastic consumption at source, BALTIPLAST also developed soft solutions, most notably the Plastic Inventory Tool. This tool enabled municipalities, schools, businesses and households to measure their plastic use, identify hot-spots and implement targeted reduction measures based on real data rather than assumptions.
In parallel, technical pilots in three countries demonstrated how improved collection and sorting systems can increase recycling quality and support circular end-uses. Municipal staff, companies and local stakeholders were trained to apply these solutions, ensuring that knowledge remains embedded beyond the project lifetime.
The project’s impacts were validated through an environmental assessment. The results showed that prevention-oriented measures and reuse systems can significantly reduce plastic consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions. The tested solutions proved feasible and showed strong potential for transfer and replication across the Baltic Sea Region.
By the end of the project, BALTIPLAST delivered a coherent and transferable set of validated solutions, supported by a digital platform and an educational kit for local authorities and other stakeholders. The project demonstrates that municipalities can play a decisive role in preventing plastic pollution when equipped with practical tools, measurable data and coordinated governance frameworks.
BALTIPLAST solutions
Funding
The project BALTIPLAST co-financed by Interreg Baltic Sea Region helps to drive the transition to a green and resilient Baltic Sea region.
Partnership
- Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (DE)
- City of Helsinki (FI)
- City of Tallinn (EE)
- Kaunas city municipality (LT)
- Västerås municipality (SE)
- Valmiera Municipality Government (LV)
- Stockholm Environment Institute, Tallinn Centre (EE)
- Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) (EE)
- Kaunas University of Technology (LT)
- Daugavpils City Municipality (LV)
- Union of the Baltic Cities Sustainable Cities Commission (FI)
- Baltic Environmental Forum Germany (DE)
- Baltic Environmental Forum Latvia (LV)
- Keep Sweden Tidy (SE)
- Swedish Consumers Association (SE)
- Environmental Center for Administration and Technology (ECAT) (LT)
- Coalition Clean Baltic (SE)
- Plastic-Free City, KuBus e.V. (DE)
Project information
BALTIPLAST aimed to identify, test and deploy concrete solutions to handle and reduce the flow of plastic waste to the Baltic Sea, under the lenses of a circular economy. This was done with the consortium of key actors in the plastic waste value chain, namely local authorities, universities and research institutions, associations and NGOs, as well as SMEs and large enterprises in the participating countries, that operate in the waste management field.