Beach Cleaning Cooperation

Mr. Knut Mauseth, the Managing Director of OMV (Norge) AS, is committed to take corporate social responsibility, which includes employee engagement. He hopes the Clean Shores agreement will bring greater attention to the recycling of waste. Plastics are one of the products of the company’s business and the objective of OMV is to ensure that resources are reused in a sustainable way for as long as possible. “Nobody wants plastics and waste to overflow around us. Our fjords and beaches are particularly vulnerable. That is why we take a corporate responsibility to contribute to keeping our coast clean,” Mr. Mauseth says.

Clean Shores is a non-profit organization with a mission to keep our coastlines free of garbage. Every week, volunteers participate in beach clean-ups under the auspices of the organization. In the Stavanger area alone, over 65 tons of waste has been collected by Clean Shores since the start in 2017. The waste is delivered to the recycling plant outside Stavanger. The recycle rate in Norway is 70% and falling. Clean Shores wants to improve this. “We have to recycle more waste and are very happy that OMV is joining the team. It is the first energy company that has chosen to enter into a closer collaboration with us, says Mr. Hogne Kile,” the Chairman of the Board of Clean Shores.

Each day, 13 million tons of plastics end up in the sea. Micro plastics in fish and marine animals is an increasingly severe problem. Much of this waste is also ending up on the long Norwegian coast. The OMV ReOil plant at the Schwechat Refinery outside Vienna recycle plastic waste to synthetic crude oil. “The waste of today becomes raw material of tomorrow. This improves value creation and contributes to reducing greenhouse emissions. It's the form of circular economics I can appreciate,” says Mr. Mauseth.