Plastic and hazardous substances – with the mission to communicate this topic and the findings of NonHazCity, we traveled to the Swedish city of Västerås in the beginning of February.
The city of Västerås has decided to go on a plastic diet and asked NonHazCity for support. Therefore, we first took a closer look at the mayor’s office to search for dangerous chemicals and plastics. We were impressed with the already very environmentally friendly setting of the administration!
The city’s plastic diet started with a seminar. Together with other representatives of the project, we outlined the problems surrounding plastic as a vector for hazardous substances and presented the most important findings of the project. Experiences and activities from cities that are already working on combating the plastic problem have been exchanged with the plans of the city of Västerås. The seminar participants agreed that we have to go much farther than to ban single-use plastic in order to really solve the problem. Around 40 politicians and employees of the city took part in the seminar – including the mayor and the debuty mayor – a good sign that the topic is very high on their agenda. Six of the participants spontaneously committed to carry out a private plastic diet. We are excited and will keep you up to date.
