OUR WHY
- More than 8 millions tons of plastic bottles end up in the sea each year.
- 1.5 million single-use plastic bottles are consumed daily in the Balearic Islands.
- On the Balearics the consumption of plastic water bottles doubles in number that of the rest of Spain. - 92% of the waste on beaches in the Mediterranean islands is plastic.
- Only 20% of waste is recycled in Mallorca which means that 80% ends up in landfill and/or the ocean. - Without action, there could be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050.
OUR STORY
In 2017, the founders of Cleanwave, with the support of a dedicated team, set out to find solutions to single-use plastic and build a movement that sets out to replace a throw-away culture with a re-use mindset.
This was achieved by creating the first network of water refill points across the Balearic Islands, where residents and tourists can refill their sustainable water bottles, thereby providing an alternative solution to single-use plastic water bottles.
The initiative grew fast, which led on to a sought-after educational program; an award winning documentary film, ‘Out of Plastic’; public water fountains in collaboration with the local government; community engagement and plastic free water solutions at events across the islands.
The Cleanwave seeds that were planted in 2017, have now grown to become the Cleanwave Foundation.
OUR IMPACT
In our continuous efforts to facilitate access to water and life without plastic on the islands, we are proud to see how the network of Cleanwave refill points and public fountains continues to grow and its positive impact on society.
Impact 2021 and forecast for 2022
In July 2019 Cleanwave achieved the installation of the first public fountain of filtered water in Palma in collaboration with the City Council of Palma and EMAYA , and thanks to a private donation that allowed to finance this first fountain.
Subsequently EMAYA acquired another 32 fountains for the city of Palma, so that by December 31, 2021 there were 33 fountains installed in the city.
Between March and June 2021, both the City Council of Marratxí and the UIB joined the initiative and installed a fountain respectively.
We calculated an estimate of the accumulated water consumption from our public fountains: more than 518.000 litres of filtered drinking water was consumed. This is an equivalent of 1.036.000 x 0.5 litre plastic water bottles avoided.
Furthermore, in 2022, another 30 fountains will be installed by EMAYA in Palma, 4 fountains in Ibiza and numbers are growing in other municipalities.
We participated in 17 events with our rockets and/or portable fountains. More than 11.000 litre of water was consumed which means we avoided 22.000 of 0.5l plastic water bottles.
