Renewi proud partner of the Eneco Clean Beach Cup

For the last nine years, green energy supplier Eneco and 17 Belgian surf clubs have joined forces to organise the annual Eneco Clean Beach Cup at the Belgian coast. The event aims to combat the waste that finds its way onto Belgian beaches and this year the event focused on plastics. Renewi Belgium participated in the Eneco Clean Beach Cup, which is part of the 24th global beach clean-up initiative organised by the Surfrider Foundation Europe. Each year, the event takes place on the first Sunday of spring, which took place on the 25th of March, 2018.

It was the second time that Renewi took part in the beach clean-up initiative as a partner of the Eneco Clean Beach Cup. As a forerunner in the circular economy, waste-to-product company Renewi invests in innovative techniques as it strives to increase material recycling and to raise awareness of the importance of waste segregation. During the clean-up event, our containers, vehicles and waste solutions are used for separating, collecting and processing plastic waste, which is the most common type of waste found on beaches and in the sea. The waste is then processed to create raw materials. Renewi Belgium also lends its support to the clean-up campaign by encouraging its staff to take part in the event and to take on an active role.

The main venue for this year’s beach clean-up event was the O’Neill Beachclub in Blankenberge. But also at sixteen other locations along the coast helped to clean up beach waste and litter. Nearly 4,000 volunteers collected more than 5.5 tons of waste from a stretch of coast running from De Panne to Zeebrugge. Plastics in the form of bottles, bags and packaging were the most commonly found materials, along with fishing industry waste, cigarette butts, polystyrene and tin cans. Among those helping to clean up the beaches were Philippe De Backer ,the Belgian Secretary of State for the North Sea, European Commissioner Karmenu Vella, and North Sea Chef Filip Claeys.

Eneco Clean Beach Cup organiser Sven Fransen urged all of the municipalities located along the Belgian coast to work on solutions for combating beach waste and litter themselves. Mooimakers, an initiative aimed at reducing litter and tackling illegal dumping, made €20,000 available to the coastal municipalities that could come up with the best solutions for reducing the waste they produce, and that were able to persuade the most people to come and help with the clean-up. The winning municipalities, De Haan and Bredene, each received €10,000.