Over the last 20 years, the world has produced as much plastic as it did between 1950 and 2000, with a record production of 359 million tonnes in 2018.

This exponential trend is not about to be reversed.

As you read these lines, nearly 80% of these plastics are buried in landfills, in the wild on our continents or submerged in our oceans.

We are all aware of the problem!

So how do we explain that we still dump more than 8 million tons of plastic waste into our environment every year?

In 30 years, companies have evolved at the pace of plastics, radically transforming the way we produce and consume.

An entire generation has integrated plastics into its daily life and work.

Can you imagine doing your job without any plastic?

Can we give up the internet and all digital tools?

Do we have to choose between good plastics and bad plastics?

All these questions will lead to crucial decisions in the coming years, the environmental urgency will push us to make choices.

If we do nothing, these decisions will be made for us!

A citizens' association is an association that serves the common good, beyond the sole interest of its members, and that operates democratically.

It is so that citizens can have their say that we have created UTOPIA.

Thanks to our research, we are launching the creation of the Encyclopedia of Plastics: a work bringing together knowledge, techniques and issues raised by the use of plastics in order to participate in a global awareness and to disseminate sustainable solutions.

The subject of plastics is so complex and vast that it cannot be understood in its entirety by a single individual.

We have created digital tools to collect and archive information about plastics and make it available to everyone. Thus, any citizen can contribute his or her thoughts by joining a working group in order to make progress on the subject of his or her choice.

This is a working methodology based on collective intelligence.

Our work is based on technical data, requiring a minimum knowledge base. The creation of training tools will make it possible to train any person who wants to create a working group or to join it in order to become an actor of the ecological transition.

Our desire is to give citizens the means to understand the world in order to be able to transform it and become actors of the environmental transition!

UTOPIA was born from the will to commit to understanding the causes of the plastic crisis and to share effective solutions. In order to accelerate awareness, it is our duty to make as many people as possible aware of the present and future environmental and social issues related to plastics.

Finally, the vocation of the association is to inspire through educational tools, webdocumentaries and animations the actors of tomorrow so that they commit themselves to build solutions for the future.

When UTOPIA was created, we decided to establish our association in our 3 respective regions: Brittany, Loire-Atlantique and Hauts-de-France. These regions, with their complementary industries, allow us to study the use of plastics and its stakes in the 7 sectors of activity that consume the most: tourism, agro-industry, construction, textiles, digital, medical and transport.

After 2 years studying the dependence of industries on plastics in Europe. UTOPIA will compare our report to the stakes of plastics in relation to those of 11 countries with different realities.

The aim of our expedition is to take a global look at the stakes of plastics.

A central theme will be addressed in each country. For example, in Cuba we will go to see how to integrate reuse in the medical sector.

It is essential to confront other realities and to look at environmental issues in a cross-cutting way.

An investigative work at each stage transcribed in video. This investigation will be carried out through meetings and exchanges with local professionals, scientists, associations, entrepreneurs and above all citizens.

On the spot we will take advantage of this to carry out awareness actions in schools and share pedagogical tools with teachers.

Aquarelle is an old rigging built entirely out of wood, it was designed by the architect John ANNA and built in the South of France in 1971. She was prepared for a world tour which never came to fruition.

It is with UTOPIA that she will be back in service, becoming our symbol of the fight against plastic pollution.

Through the expedition we will question the issues related to 9 industries at the heart of the plastic stakes.

In Spain, in the country of Zara, we will question the impacts of the textile sector and the stakes of its recycling.

In Morocco it is the tourist industry and the stakes of its pollution which will be treated.

In Senegal we will deal with the issues of plastic pollution and open dumps.In Colombia we will look at agricultural plastics.

In Panama our report will focus on the challenges of freight transport.

In Costa Rica, we will deal with citizen engagement as a vector of change.

In Cuba we will discover hospital practices less dependent on plastics.

In the United States, we will deal with the food industry, the oil industry and digital technology with Dell, which is developing a computer made of recycled plastic.

For 1 year now, the association has been financing its own operations with its 3 founders working full time. However, for this new stage that is the Expedition we need your help. Help us to take a critical look at our production methods and the current environmental issues.

This push will bring us closer to our goal: to be an actor of the transition through citizen research an d education.

UTOPIA : a sea named plastic

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