On 25 June, the North Sea Conference brought people from the entire North Sea region together in Oldenburg to exchange ideas and present exciting projects. Contributions from North Sea projects, the CPMR North Sea Commission, the North Sea Programme and the scientific community were followed by a special highlight: the presentation of the North Sea Video and Photo Awards.

There was great joy for TREASURE, as our Danish partner Lemvig Vand won in the "Civic Engagement" category with its creative wooden drifter campaign - a great success for the entire project team.

In the afternoon, study visits to Lower Saxony and Bremen were on the programme. At the UNESCO World Heritage Wadden Sea Visitor Centre in Wilhelmshaven, we were able to present TREASURE to an interested group and talk to them.

An all-round successful day and a great success for TREASURE.

Have a look here the slideshow with the winners of the photo competition!

On 5 June 2025, a regional stakeholder workshop of the TREASURE-Living Lab "Plastic-FREE-sia" took place in Brake an der Weser. The aim was to find out together where macro-waste in the Weser comes from. This was based on the results of a 1.5-year waste monitoring programme along the river.

After a welcome from the mayor and an introduction to the Interreg North Sea project TREASURE, the participants were given an initial insight into regional river waste monitoring. In the subsequent workshop, representatives from administration, business, civil society, politics and science worked together in two phases: Firstly, unusual waste found in the Weser was sighted and possible entry routes into the river were mapped. The groups then categorised the waste into potential sources and discussed how these inputs occur.

Finally, the results were reflected upon and an outlook for future work was given. The high level of participation showed how important regional cooperation is for reducing plastic pollution.

We look back on an exciting project year 2024! You can find out everything we did in the Plastic-FREE-sia living lab and with our international project partners in our newsletter.

In the new year, we will continue to maintain a close international dialogue in the overall project in order to reduce plastic pollution in the North Sea region together with our project partners. But we also want to continue working on developing solution strategies with targeted 'lighthouse projects' in our German Plastic-FREE-sia real-world laboratory. In close cooperation with students from the University of Oldenburg and Praxis:akteurinnen, the Office for Regional Development Weser-Ems is planning to implement targeted solution measures in selected areas together with the University of Oldenburg. We look forward to facing the new challenges in 2025 together with you.

You can find out more about our lighthouse projects here.

On 25 June 2024, an online event will take place at which we invite you – as participants in the kick-off event – as well as anyone else who is interested, to join us as stakeholders in the real-world laboratory to work together on further developing the proposals already collected, so that your innovative ideas are not merely recorded on paper, but also help to establish a more sustainable (plastic-reduced) region for the future.

We also warmly invite anyone who was unable to attend the kick-off event to support the Plastic-FREE-sia real-world laboratory in future and to become part of it.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact: Gisela Kemmner ().

Your Plastic-FREE-sia team