A commitment also towards accommodation facilities
For this reason, Venice is the first city in Italy to join the Initiative Plastic Smart Cities of the WWF, has included – among the activities of its action plan – raising awareness among accommodation facilities in preventing and reducing the use of single-use and unnecessary plastic with the launch of the “Venezia Turismo Plastic Smart” brochure. The guide is illustrated by Fernando Cobelo, and developed by WWF with the collaboration of the Veritas Group and the support of the Blue Planet Virginia Böger Foundation, and is aimed at hoteliers and all those who, in various capacities, host tourists in the city. The objective is to inform but above all to concretely highlight all those actions necessary to overcome a difficult but possible challenge: reducing one’s plastic footprint.
Tourism has a strong impact on the production of plastic waste, especially for a city with a great tourist vocation like Venice. During high season periods, the increase in population along the Mediterranean coasts causes an increase of up to 30% of waste production.
Increases of this magnitude put waste management and disposal activities to the test, resulting in a greater risk of dispersion into the environment: it is no coincidence that on the Mediterranean coasts, marine waste increases by up to 40% during the peak tourist season.
The Ottawa negotiations
Reducing one’s footprint and combating the dispersion of plastic in nature is a very current issue: yesterday the negotiations of the penultimate round of negotiations ended in Ottawa, Canada. United Nations (INC-4) negotiations for a Global Treaty on Plastic Pollution.
The negotiation process was slow but the outcome was quite positive, with further progress on developing rules to ban the most problematic and avoidable plastic products. However, important questions still remain open, such as the inclusion within the Treaty of measures to reduce the production and consumption of plastic. A fundamental element of the Treaty is also still in doubt: whether the rules will be (as hoped) global or whether the status quo will instead be maintained, with voluntary rules based on national plans.
Positive note at the end of INC-4 with the approval of formal intersessional work in view of INC-5, fundamental for discussing plastic products to be banned and harmful and avoidable chemicals, the design of products for reuse and recyclability, as well as to analyze the financial package necessary for the implementation of the Treaty.
The path to the final INC-5 negotiations in Busan, Republic of Korea, will conclude in November this year.
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The fourth and penultimate negotiation on the Plastic Pollution Treaty (INC-4), took place in Ottawa, Canada, from April 23 to 29. Next meeting in Busan, Republic of Korea in November 2024
There brochure “Venezia Turismo Plastic Smart” can be downloaded from the WWF Italy website at this link>
Fernando Cobelo Illustrator – his works stand out for their clean, precise and essential lines, and a simple and spontaneous stylistic feature.
This approach has allowed Cobelo to work on a wide range of projects for clients ranging from The New York Times, The New Yorker, La Repubblica, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Zanichelli and Penguin. / Random House to companies such as Google, Disney, Netflix, Sony, Lavazza, Samsung, Barilla, Montblanc, Swatch, Lonely Planet, WeTransfer and institutions such as the United Nations and UNICEF.
His work has been honored by the Society of Illustrators of New York, the Image Authors Association, Communication Arts, the Association of Illustrators of the United Kingdom, American Illustration, among other major illustration bodies.
Plastic Smart Cities is a global movement of cities committed to combating the dispersion of plastic in nature. Since 2018, the initiative has supported coastal cities and towns to take action to stop plastic pollution, with the aim of eliminating plastic leakage into nature by 2030. For more information, visit plasticsmartcities.org.
Venice was the first city in Italy to join the Plastic Smart Cities Initiative, in 2021 through the project “Venice and Izmir together against plastic pollution”, created thanks to the support of the Blue Planet Foundation – Virginia Böger, and which in 2022 brought the Municipality of Venice with the support of the WWF and together with the main partners project: Gruppo Veritas spa and Gruppo AVM (ACTV spa and VELA spa) to develop its first three-year Action Plan to combat plastic pollution. Action Plan “Plastic Smart Cities 2022 – 2024“
