Plastic Waste Partnership launches photography contest

The Plastic Waste Partnership (PWP) has launched a photography contest to promote outreach, education, and awareness-raising on the global plastic waste crisis. The contest welcomes entries from all walks of life: from amateur to professional photographers, of all ages.

The Basel Convention, the UN’s multilateral environmental treaty on the prevention, minimization, and sound management of waste, has established a platform that unites stakeholders from governments, international organizations, NGOs, academia, and industry.

Of the 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste, only 9% has been recycled and another 12% incinerated

Over the last ten years, people have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century. Of the estimated 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste produced since the 1950s, only 9% has been recycled and another 12% incinerated.

Entered photos will be judged by a panel including the National Geographic Photographer Sara Hylton

Through the contest, the PWP wants to shine a light not only on the plastic waste problem but also on the solutions out there, our collective progress to date, and the challenges and opportunities moving forward, the Basel Convention said on its website.

The deadline to submit photographs is September 30, 2020.

There will be 3 winners per category

Entered photos will be judged by a panel including the National Geographic Photographer Sara Hylton, and winning images will be used for a Basel Convention plastic waste calendar.

Six categories

Contest participants are invited to submit their entries in the following six categories (photography contest submission form):

• Let’s go outside! – Plastic waste and nature
• Plastic waste and our health and livelihoods
• Tiny but everywhere: Microplastics
• Let’s use it! – Plastic waste as a resource
• Let’s do it! – Solutions for avoiding single-use plastic products
• Let’s fix it! – Alternatives, new technologies and innovation

There will be three (3) winners per category – one amateur adult, one professional adult, and one child (under 18 years). Exciting awards and visibility will be offered for each winner.

The winning entries will be used to produce an 18-month calendar which will be gifted to participants at the Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions in 2021.

Guidelines for applicants:

• Photographs can be either in color or black and white,
• They must be in JPEG format,
• Minimum size: 1.5 MB (within 2048 x 1536 pixels or 1536 x 2048 pixels),
• Winners may later be requested to submit JPEG images with higher resolution.