Forward Thinkers | Sant Lluis Town Council

As part of the MAR NOSTRA project from GOB and funded by MEPF, the Town Council of Sant Lluís has signed an agreement to reduce the presence of disposable plastics in its day-to-day official business, in celebrations and in the local, annual, patron saint day fiestas.

 

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Stemming from a shared preoccupation about the worsening marine pollution situation and the increased production of landfill waste, the obvious step forward was for Sant Lluís to join the MAR NOSTRA campaign and put into practice a single-use plastic ban.

The MAR NOSTRA from GOB and funded by the Menorca Preservation Fund, offers advice on how to reduce plastic consumption and help with the imminent transition to making Menorca free of disposable plastics. With single-use plastics accounting for a large number of the discarded items found on beaches and on the sea floor, these are the primary candidates for elimination and a great place to start, as they are completely non-essential items.

Having recently signed the MAR NOSTRA agreement, Sant Lluís Town Council has, therefore, pledged its commitment to reducing and eliminating all single-use plastics items from it’s day-to-day activities. It has agreed to substitute as many plastic items used by the municipal services as possible, with more sustainable options. Measures have already been taken to implement this agreement and will continue to do so until a level of nearly no plastic has been achieved.

Some of the measures being taken to ensure that a tangible change is witnessed include; a ban on plastic drinking cups in street bars, a system of compensation for the return of light packaging and, the popular, return-of-deposit on glasses at the annual town fiestas. All of these are helping create an important dialogue and change in reducing our plastic use.

Sant Lluis Town Council also has other ambitious proposals for the area, which would put it at the forefront of environmental action on the island. These include the creation of drinkable public tap water and helping small businesses replace their single-use plastics with more sustainable alternatives.

The MAR NOSTRA campaign is steadily increasing its portfolio of businesses and organisations that have signed up to take the plastic-free challenge, so that eventually no one in Menorca will be using single-use plastics by 2020. With Sant Lluís town hall having joined the MAR NOSTRA single-plastic reduction campaign, it is hoped that this will lead the way for more local organisations, councils, businesses and entities to follow suit.

To see the list of associations who have already signed up to this initiative, click here…

If you would like to sign-up to the initiative or find out more information about how you can make your business more sustainable, email info@menorcapreservationfund.org

 

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For information on how you can encourage public institutions and companies to sign the agreement or to sign up your business to the 2020 promise, email info@menorcapreservationfund.org