Mission & Vision
Our slogan is ‘No plastic in our water or our bodies’. We combat the plastic soup at its source and therefore, we focus on three main goals:
- prevent plastic from ending up in the environment
- share knowledge about the health risks related to plastics and plastic additives
- achieve absolute reduction in the production and use of plastic
Plastic has fantastic properties and is extremely cheap to produce, which is why almost everything around us is made it. We’re in contact with it all the time. Because plastic in the environment breaks down into tiny particles, we’re also constantly eating, drinking, and breathing in plastic particles.
The realization that constantly being exposed to plastic can have harmful consequences for our health is slowly dawning on the public. The first scientists have already found evidence for this.
See our PSF Multi-Year Strategy 2024 – 2028
Precautionary principle
Science guides everything we do. We monitor research, work closely with many universities in various countries, and call for more research in relevant fields. But we also emphasize the precautionary principle; even if something has not yet been fully proven, it may be necessary to take action now!
As it becomes clearer that plastic endangers our health, support will grow for reducing the use of plastic, slowing down its production and stopping its leakage into the environment.
In 2004, an article was published in Science about scientific research into plastic pollution. This article sounded the alarm and used the word ‘microplastics’ for the first time. Since then, research into plastic pollution has taken off, but we still have a lot to learn…
Independent
In order to achieve our goal, it is imperative that we operate independently. We welcome collaboration but do not accept funding that restricts us. Our donors are independent philanthropists, daring equity funds, students who raise money for us, and citizens who donate their container deposit money. We also receive gifts from abroad.
Thanks to a donation of €600,000 from the Dutch Postcode Lottery, we were able to further professionalize our organization in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Since our establishment, we have come a long way with little funding. We will always be frugal and think carefully about how we use the funds entrusted to us.
