Plastic Soup Foundation

Mission The mission of Plastic Soup Foundation is: 'Closing the plastic tap: Towards a plastic free future!'

We do not take plastic out of the water; instead, we want to put an end to the increasing amount of plastic polluting the ocean by tackling the issue at its sources. Think of microplastics in cosmetics or synthetic fibres from clothing. These all end up in the ocean one way or another. We have been working towards this goal since 2011. According to the international press, we are now 'One of the leading advocacy groups to tackle plastic pollution.'

Vision
With a devoted Amsterdam-based team we work with a firm approach: Be aware: The Plastic Soup Foundation constantly draws attention to plastic soup through campaigns, news articles and social media. Get educated: Anyone who wants to find out more about plastic soup is in the right place when they come to us. The Plastic Soup Foundation has developed educational programs for primary and secondary schools since 2016, and in 2018 we launched a new digital education program for primary schools. In addition we work together with experts, politicians, organizations, universities and companies which have similar missions or visions. Find solutions:

The Plastic Soup Foundation stimulates all possible (innovative) solutions which help tackle the causes of plastic soup at source. Measures which prevent plastic entering the environment, water and possibly ending up in the sea have the greatest impact in our opinion. This includes reducing the amount of single-use consumer plastics, the development of a plastic footprint for companies as well as smart devices which collect plastic in waterways.

Global sustainability goals and plastic soup In September 2015, the United Nations determined the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development . This agenda comprises the seventeen well-known Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). All Member States have an effort obligation to adjust their policies so that these goals will indeed be achieved in 2030. Many organizations and companies have now also embraced the agenda and use the sustainability goals as a guide for their actions. None of the seventeen SDGs specifically has plastic soup as its main subject.

Meanwhile, the effects of the plastic soup are clearer and clearer and the problem is increasingly prominent on the international agenda. In July 2017, the United Nations met on the implementation of SDG 14, ("Preserve and make sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources"), and the world adopted a resolution : "Our Ocean, our future: call for action". All countries agreed to intensify their efforts to prevent pollution of the oceans, among others by aiming to reduce plastics and microplastics. There was special attention for the reduction of Single Use Plastic (SUP), single use packaging plastics in particular.

2023 onwards our video portraits 'Scientists Speak Out' (on YouTube) played a very important role in the UN negotiations INC4,5 and 5.2 of the Plastic Global Treaty. We spoke world leading scientists about micro- and nanoplastics. They are afraid of the consequences and want to tell the world about it. We fully support these scientists, and go on making more episodes of 'Scientists Speak Out'.

In 2025 we launched our new PlasticFreeFuture app: impact in your pocket. You can scan products to see if they contain microplastics or not.