The plastic waste collected and then recycled can become a useful tool for dealing with emergency situations. This was the result of the experimental project presented at the Ecomondo fair in Rimini by Waste Free Oceans and Corepla, who, together with Protomax, have created a humanitarian shelter prototype with plastic collected along the river Po in Italy.

Corepla - the Italian non-profit-making consortium for the collection, recycling and recovery of the waste from plastic packaging materials - partnered with the Waste Free Oceans foundation and collaborated on this project in Italy by providing the material which was used for the first shelter.

The plastic waste collected with experimental polyethylene barriers in the river Po, after being recycled by Corepla, was sent to the Storm Board plant of the English group Protomax Plastics, a company specialising in the production of recycled plastic panels that are mainly used in the constructions sector, in order to produce the boards which served for building the shelter.

The organisations cooperate in finding a practical answer to the issue of marine litter and in helping educate society on the recycling solutions available, therefore helping some regions in the world with the humanitarian shelter project.