Every year, Port of Antwerp organises a clean-up campaign for the Galgeschoor-mudflat nature reserve. This year, more than 400 volunteers collected no less than 8 tons of waste. Unfortunately, there are still millions of small plastic particles that cannot be cleaned by hand.
These small plastics are transported year after year by the 350 km long Scheldt that crosses many cities and eventually washes up by the tides. This nature reserve also has to contend with industrial plastic pellets (polymers as raw material for many products) that have been lost over the years and have accumulated in this mud and salt marshes area.
In order to tackle this at the source, Port of Antwerp, together with the entire plastics sector, has put its shoulders to the 'Operation Clean Sweep ©' charter in which we strive for 'Zero Pellet Loss'.
But what about these small plastics that are now entangled in this nature reserve?
Do you have the solution on how to remove those millions of tiny plastic particles from the Galgeschoor? You will face a some challenges:
Port of Antwerp challenges you to come up with a feasible solution in a multitude of factors such as technical, budgetary, logistics and environmental! We received many creative solutions and are have now selected three nominees?
For this challenge, the Port of Antwerp is organizing a competition in which the winner has a chance of winning a fantastic prize!
During the first round you or your team pitch the concept and/or ideas for a group of experts. In this phase of the challenge, you will have to propose a concept of your solution that will convince the expert team of experts that:
During the first round you or your team pitch the concept and/or ideas for a group of experts. If you are selected for the second round, you will refine the concept into a concrete technically, economically and ecologically feasible proposal. In the final round, it is up to you to convince the jury!
In order to be able to estimate that your concept canmake an estimation your concept offers a feasible solution, we need more information. For example:
The jury decides who has the most creative, promising and at the same time achievable proposal. The winner of this challenge will receive a prize of 10,000 euros. Port of Antwerp will then assist the winner in translating the idea into reality.
The Galgeschoor is an area of over 100 hectares and offers a home for many unique vegetations and bird species. It is therefore very important that the nature reserve is not disturbed by this challenge. In this mud flats and salt marshes area, 3 different vegetation zones are indicated that are applicable for this challenge.
For this challenge, the Galgenschoor-mudflat is indicated as reference point. Such vegetation zones with plastic contamination can also occur elsewhere in other mudflats and salt marshes along the banks of the Scheldt!
The plastics to be removed float around the denominator of microplastics and literally fall through the meshes of the net.
Which plastics are we talking about?
Do you want to see and feel these plastics? We will gladly send you a starter pack with a sample of plastics directly from the Galgeschoor. Send an email to plastic.challenge@portofantwerp.com.
The final winner will be announced on 19 December.
Good luck!