Stakeholder Dialogue 2019
Joint Responsibility
Joining forces. Developing solutions together instead of launching ever new individual projects into the world: How business, science and civil society can better cooperate in solving the problem of progressive environmental pollution caused by plastic waste was the topic of the 1st POLYPROBLEM Stakeholder Dialogue on March 27, 2019 in Berlin.
Around 150 experts, including historian Dr. Franz Mauelshagen, Emily Woglom, Executive Vice President of the globally operating NGO Ocean Conservancy, Jürgen Bertling from Fraunhofer UMSICHT, Michael Hillenbrand, Berlin representative of the industry association Plastics Europe Germany, and Delphine Lévy Alvarès, European Coordinator of Zero Waste Europe, shed light on the complex, global challenge of plastics and the environment from various perspectives.
The open and critical discussion made it clear that learned mechanisms are no longer sufficient when it comes to plastics. The principle of responsibility of the petrochemical and packaging industries will play just as much a role as product designers who develop new products and every single consumer who ultimately realizes the emissions.
The visibility of the problem should not be prematurely divided into camps by emotional, media-fueled discussions and ended in a way that makes it impossible to bridge the gap. The truth lies between propagating simple solutions and denying the problem.
