Upcoming Webinar: Cleaner Seas Begin on Land

• February 20, 2026

26 March 2026 | 12:00 CET | Online

The PHAROS Citizen Litter Entrepreneur Programme, in partnership with Impact Hub Athens, announces the fourth instalment of the “Meet the Oceanpreneur” webinar series. This session shifts focus from ocean cleanup to land-based prevention, exploring how upstream solutions can stop marine litter before it reaches our seas.

Event Details

Title: Cleaner Seas Begin on Land: Prevention, Zero Waste & Community Action
Date: Thursday, 26 March 2026
Time: 12:00 – 12:50 CET (50 minutes)
Format: Online via Zoom
Host: Impact Hub Athens

Why Prevention Matters

Marine plastic pollution doesn’t start in the ocean. It begins on land, in our communities, businesses, and consumption patterns. This webinar tackles the problem at its source by showcasing innovative approaches that prevent waste from entering marine ecosystems in the first place.

Participants will discover how zero-waste business models, circular product design, community-led collection schemes, and policy-driven prevention strategies are creating real impact across coastal regions. The session highlights practical solutions that combine environmental protection with inclusive economic opportunities for local communities.

What to Expect

The 50-minute session follows an interactive format designed to maximise learning and exchange:

• Two speaker spotlights (≈10 minutes each) featuring practitioners and innovators sharing real-world prevention initiatives
• Moderated dialogue (≈20 minutes) exploring challenges, successes, and scalable approaches
• Audience Q&A (≈10 minutes) for direct engagement with speakers and participants

The discussion will examine how sustainable consumption, responsible production, and local engagement can significantly reduce waste flows before they reach rivers and seas, whilst creating resilient circular economies at the local level.

Session Objectives

This webinar aims to:

Shift the focus from cleanup at sea to prevention on land through sustainable consumption and responsible production.

Explore practical strategies including zero-waste approaches, circular product design, and local collection schemes that reduce, redesign, and eliminate plastic waste flows.

Highlight the role of communities, municipalities, and entrepreneurs in driving prevention-first approaches to marine litter.

Encourage cross-sector collaboration between citizens, businesses, public authorities, and researchers to build strong zero-waste ecosystems.

Inspire replication of scalable, upstream solutions aligned with Mission Ocean goals for cleaner, plastic-free coasts.

Host

Dimitris Kokkinakis / CEO & Co-Founder, Impact Hub Athens

Dimitris Kokkinakis is a social entrepreneur and community-builder, he co-founded Impact Hub Athens in 2013, an ever-growing ecosystem of social innovators and entrepreneurs driving change through responsible, inclusive, and sustainability-driven initiatives. Impact Hub Athens is part of the global Impact Hub network, present in over 110 cities worldwide, connecting people, places, and programs to inspire, support, and catalyze impact. Since a young age he has been actively involved in national and international organizations and networks, working with diverse communities across sectors including entrepreneurship, the arts, and environment. Under his co-leadership, Impact Hub Athens has implemented large-scale initiatives at local, national, and EU levels, focusing on sustainability, inclusion, and climate resilience.

Moderator

Ignasi Mateo / Project Manager, MedWaves

Ignasi is currently working at the Waste Agency of Catalonia, where he supports companies in developing waste prevention measures (mainly plastic and SUP), advancing circular economy strategies, and promoting extended producer responsibility schemes.

For the past decade, he served as a Project Manager at MedWaves, a UNEP/MAP Regional Activity Centre, where he managed and coordinated European and Mediterranean projects under the framework of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Barcelona Convention. Notable projects include ACT4LITTER and Plastic Busters MPAs (Interreg), BlueMissionMed and LooP Zone (Horizon 2020), and CapiMed+ (funded by Beyond Plastic Med). He is also engaged in the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) process to develop a legally binding international instrument to end plastic pollution.

Speakers

Amaia Rodríguez / CEO & Co-Founder, Gravity Wave

Amaia Rodríguez is the CEO of Gravity Wave, a Spanish impact-driven company tackling marine plastic pollution. She leads initiatives that collect abandoned fishing nets and other ocean plastics and transform them into recycled materials and products for brands and industry. Her work sits at the intersection of circular economy, sustainability, and real-world supply-chain execution—building partnerships with fishermen, ports, and companies to scale measurable environmental impact.

Dr. Katrin Schuhen / CEO, Wasser 3.0

After completing her doctorate in chemistry in 2007 (Ruprecht-Karls University, Heidelberg), Dr. Katrin Schuhen worked in medical technology and in polymer production industry before setting up her own research group as part of her Junior Professorship for Organic and Ecological Chemistry at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany (2012- 2018). 

Since then, she has been working on new material classes for the removal of microplastics and micropollutants from all kinds of water as well as on their detection, reuse, and digitized process control. In May 2020, she founded Wasser 3.0 gGmbH as a non-profit Greentech company working for water without microplastics and micropollutants in innovation transfer, scaling, and growth as well as in research, education and awareness raising. 

Together with her team, she developed the world´s first fast and efficient monitoring toolbox and analytical method for microplastics and innovated the Clump & Skim Technology for microplastic removal and reuse. Beside many awards for the technology innovation, Dr. Katrin Schuhen was awarded as one of the TOP 100 women in social enterprises (Euclid Network, 2023). In addition to many scientific articles, she published her first non-fiction book in October 2024 with the title: “Rebellin des Wassers”, Scorpio Verlag, Germany. 

Who Should Attend

This session is designed for:

• Mission Ocean projects and partners
• Researchers working on marine pollution and circular economy
• Startups and social enterprises in the blue economy
• Local authorities and policymakers
• Civil society organisations and NGOs
• Community leaders and environmental advocates
• Anyone committed to building plastic-free coastal futures

Join Us

The webinar represents a critical conversation about changing our approach to marine litter. Rather than focusing solely on cleaning what has already entered our oceans, this session empowers participants to become agents of prevention in their own communities and sectors.

By bringing together diverse perspectives from across Europe and the Mediterranean, the event fosters the cross-sector collaboration essential for systemic change.

About the PHAROS Citizen Litter Entrepreneur Programme

The Citizen Litter Entrepreneur Programme is part of the EU-funded PHAROS project, which develops innovative nature-based solutions to restore marine ecosystems, enhance biodiversity, and address climate change across the Atlantic and Arctic regions. The programme empowers citizens and entrepreneurs to transform ocean plastic waste into sustainable business opportunities through training, tools, and circular economy ventures.