Country house Oosterhouw in Leens. Photo: Shipowners
The Wadden Fund announced on Tuesday that it would allocate more than 2 million euros to four major projects in the province of Groningen.
The project Port of Lauwersoog: plastic recycling hub for the Wadden area will receive almost the maximum amount of 1 million euros from the Wadden Fund: 991,945 euros. In this project floating plastic is collected in the harbor of Lauwersoog (with floating drones). This plastic is sorted and then processed in mobile installations. New products such as roof and sidewalk tiles are made from the plastic waste. These are sold to companies in the port, which can also hand in plastic themselves.
An estimated 3720 tons of plastic per year will be processed in the plastic node – the hub. It also functions as a place for research and knowledge sharing about the process of reprocessing. Another goal is to make people aware of the plastic waste problem.
The project is subsidized because it contributes to the sustainable economic development of the Wadden region, one of the criteria of the Wadden Fund. A total of 1,477.10 euros will be invested in the project.
Conservation of Oosterhouw park garden
The Wadden Fund is also investing more than 600,000 euros in the restoration and opening of the Oosterhouw country house in Leens. The project focuses mainly on preserving the park garden, which shows four landscape styles from three centuries.
This project receives a subsidy because it contributes to the reinforcement of sustainable tourism in the Wadden area. The total project costs amount to 999,411 euros.
Improving the quality of saline clay soil
In addition, more than half a million euros will go to the project Getting to the bottom of the salty clay soil † The focus is on how the soil in the Wadden area can recover from the effects of salinization. Research is being conducted into how the quality of salinized clay soils can be improved and restored. The total investment amounts to 657,689 euros.
Recycling of plastic and textile waste
Also, 213,212 euros will be invested in a trial in the Eemshaven with the recycling of plastic and textile waste into new products. Other waste – fishing net, shoes, face masks and cigarette butts – is also used as raw material.
The starting point is that by removing 250 tons of waste from the Wadden Sea, 150 tons of mixed waste and 100 tons of hospital waste, an estimated 1,250 tons of CO2 emissions will be saved. After all, this waste does not have to be incinerated. The total costs amount to 740,602 euros.
The money comes from the Subsidy Scheme Thematic Implementation Wadden Region (STUW), a scheme for which 7.1 million is still available until the end of this year.