World Cleanup Day 2019: Zurich employees are active for a good cause

Zurich is one of the world’s most expensive cities in the world and Switzerland is one of the richest countries on the planet. Yet, the country also has – with 716kg of waste per person (i.e. almost 2kg per day!) – one of the highest waste levels in the world.

BNP Paribas as a bank and its employees in Zurich are committed to changing this situation for the better. Last Friday, September 20th, 2019, as part of the World Cleanup Day 2019 they watched the short film “A Plastic Ocean” produced by Craig Leeson, our Global Sustainable Ambassador for the for the next 3 years to 2020 before dedicating two hours of their afternoon for a guided tour at the of the sewage treatment plant Werdhölzli in Zurich.

For all participants the film and excursion were eye-opening moments. All agreed: “It’s crazy to see what mankind does to the ecosystem! We are actually eating plastic.”

Therefore, for the soil, air and water to be as clean as possible it needs every single one of us.

The sewage treatment plant Werdhölzli in Zurich the employees visited might count among the most modern plants in Europe. Yet, everything that is thrown into the toilet needs to be segregated and not everything that is said to be soluble is actually soluble: the plastic of dish washer tabs for example is not… Reason why waste water can be cleaned at the sewage treatment plant Werdhölzli with a quality up to 99.8% only. The remaining “dirty” 0.2% are particles of plastic that will remain in the life cycle…

Conscious of their responsibility, the employees at the BNP Paribas branch in Zurich also would like to become locally involved. They are hence organizing to contribute for half a day to a clean city of Zurich with a “clean-up session” of the Limmat, Sihl and the lake of Zurich for later this year.