Siegwerk partners on environmental initiative

Ink provider Siegwerk has become a strategic partner of Project ‘Stop’, an initiative that designs, implements and scales circular economy solutions to cut down marine plastic pollution in Southeast Asia.

“We strongly believe that creating a circular economy is the solution to today’s global waste problem and we see it as our responsibility as global player to actively support its realisation,” said Alina Marm, head of circular economy hub at Siegwerk. Every year, roughly 12m tons of plastic waste ends up in the ocean, with an estimated 50% of marine debris originating from five Asian economies - China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand. With an annual consumption of more than 6m tons of plastic and an estimated ocean leakage of 1m tons per year, Indonesia is the second largest contributor to ocean plastics. In response, the Indonesian government has created a Marine Debris Action Plan in 2017 committing itself to reduce Indonesia’s ocean plastic levels 70% by 2025. Project Stop has four core objectives; zero leakage of waste into the environment; creating more circular systems; achieving economic sustainability; and benefits to local community via creation of new jobs and reducing impact of mismanaged waste on public health, tourism and fishers. The initiative works hand in hand with local municipalities and environmental agencies to contribute to developing a low cost and circular waste management infrastructure through city partnership projects across Indonesia.