The Ministry of the Environment and the Finnish Plastic Panel have awarded the Plastic Circulation prize (’Muovin kierto’) to the SPIRIT programme led by Borealis. This annual award is handed out at the ‘Muovifoorumi’ plastics event to a person or organisation that has significantly advanced the measures of the national plastics roadmap.
This year, the Plastic Panel wanted to highlight actors who have made an impact to the regulation of plastics circular economy, built cooperation between different sectors and driven change forward with tangible actions. The panel agreed that the SPIRIT programme represents systemic, long-term and collaborative work. According to the reasoning, “the programme shows that the principles of plastics circular economy can be implemented in practice at an industrial scale and in cooperation with the public sector, research and the industries.”
Sanna Martin and Jaakko Tuomainen
The main goal of the SPIRIT programme is to make the plastics value chain sustainable. This means a shift from fossil raw materials to renewable and recycled sources, enhancing recycling, carbon neutral production and developing the market. The SPIRIT programme has brought together a broad group of partners who have tackled these challenges together.
SPIRIT Programme Manager Jaakko Tuomainen from Borealis received the prize at the ceremony on 7th of November. He said at the event: ”It’s great to see our work on plastics circularity has been widely recognized. This award confirms that our efforts are making a real impact — it belongs to the whole ecosystem.”
The Plastic Panel is a group of active citizens interested in solving the plastics challenge, accelerating the work of the national plastics roadmap. The plastics roadmap is a broad national programme aiming for a breakthrough in the plastics circular economy in Finland by 2030. In addition, students of material engineering at Turku University of Applied Sciences participated in the preliminary assessment of the candidates.
Anyone can nominate a recipient for the Plastic Circularity Prize. In total, there were 12 candidates representing different areas of the plastics circular economy, from research and innovation to practical implementation and organisational activity.
Main photo from left to right: Jyri Tirronniemi from Syke, Johanna Kohvakka from Plastic Panel, Jaakko Tuomainen and Merja Saarnilehto from the Ministry of the Environment.