Farmaè, Italy’s leading healthcare, beauty and wellness platform, is collaborating with start-up Ogyre to clean up the ocean of plastic with the help of fishermen. The aim of the operation is to collect 1,000 kilos of “marine litters” from the sea.

Viareggio, 8 June 2022 – Farmaè S.p.A – a company listed on the Euronext Growth Milan market of Borsa Italiana and a leading platform in Italy in the healthcare, beauty and wellness sectors – is promoting the collection of 1,000 kilograms of plastic from the sea: the company has in fact launched a partnership with the start-up Ogyre, the first global platform for fishing for litter, a model that allows anyone – individuals and companies – to contribute to the health of the oceans by collecting marine litter with the help of fishermen.

The collection project can be followed online through a dedicated webpage (https://ogyre.com/pages/farmae) where the progress of the collection – up to the target of 1,000 kg of total litter – and the details of the fishermen involved will be reported.

The initiative is announced today, 8 June, on the occasion of World Oceans Day, established by the United Nations with the aim of shedding light on the problems affecting the oceans and raising public awareness on these issues.

With ports already active in Italy (Cesenatico, Santa Margherita Ligure, Marina di Ravenna), Brazil and Indonesia, Ogyre now counts on a network of 80 fishing boats in three continents, thanks to whose collaboration it carries out sustainability projects such as the one completed with the contribution of Farmaè.

Fishing for litter’ is a model born in Scandinavian countries to clean the seas of plastic through the collaboration of fishermen, who every day during their work encounter kilos and kilos of rubbish abandoned in the sea. The project provides a financial contribution for them to bring ashore the marine waste that gets stuck in fishing nets, while making a positive impact on local communities. Once ashore, the waste is disposed of properly through partnerships with local NGOs. On average, Ogyre collects, through its network of fishing boats, 10,000 kg of waste per month, some of which is put into the recycling circuit. The start-up’s goal is to collect four million kilograms by 2025 thanks to collection projects involving companies and individuals.

According to Daniele Bertuccelli, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Farmaè: “This initiative in favour of the oceans is part of a broader path that Farmaè has undertaken with the aim not only of becoming sustainable itself, but also of fostering awareness among the population of the serious environmental problems that we face today. The company’s recent decision to become carbon neutral, i.e. with zero CO2 emissions, with the aim of combating the climate crisis, is also part of this perspective”.

Riccardo Iacometti, Founder and CEO of Farmaè S.p.A., emphasises: “I believe that for a company operating in the healthcare, beauty and wellness sector, committing to the environment, whether it is the climate crisis or the health of the oceans, is very important. This, too, is part of the health and well-being of our customers. Thanks to the high number of visitors to our web portal, almost 44 million last year, we can give wide visibility to these issues through our channels, thus raising awareness among our audience”.