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  • Meet Carlos
Carlos Cañas is a proactive Spanish geographer. He combined his Geography Degree with a Science Degree in Geodesy and Cartography. In 2010 he was awarded with an Erasmus+ grant to work at the Institute for Sustainable Development in Malta. Upon completion of the internship, he returned to Spain to do a Master Degree in Geographic Information Systems (GIS).After completing his Master, he gathered expertise and experience as a GIS Analyst working for consulting companies in Spain. In 2013 he went back to Malta and worked in different projects as a GIS Analyst at the Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development until he finally became part of the University of Malta’s staff.  Since then, he has been working as a Research Support Officer in projects with economic, environmental and social aspects, using GIS as a decision support tool. Some of the projects are related to land use and land cover, civil protection in case of seismic activity, cultural maps, transport and urban mobility, etc.In 2015 he was accepted in the eCOST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) within the ENERGIC Action, where a group of multidisciplinary scientist conduct research related to Geospatial Information Crowdsourcing and Volunteer Geographic Information, recognizing the potential value of these sources to the EU in citizen-based decision making. On a personal level, he is currently writing his PhD proposal where he intends to develop a Walkability Index for Malta. He aims to improve the urban mobility of Malta by creating a more sustainable, inclusive and multimodal transport network. The first step of his research is to develop a national methodology to measure how walkable the Maltese streets are based on both the physical characteristics of the environment and the perception of the pedestrians. 
He has recently placed first runner-up in a national competition for young people in Malta called “Innovation Challenge: Go Green”, where he needed to identify an environmental problem, come up with a green innovative solution, assess its feasibility, and submit a proposal for evaluation. The issue he is facing is the cigarette filter littering and its negative impact in both the environment and the public health. 
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  • Organization/Institute where he works:
Institute for Climate Change & Sustainable Development. University of Malta. https://www.um.edu.mt/iccsd 

  • Topic of the presentation:
The topic I would like to talk about during my presentation is a personal project I am working on. I took part in a competition for young people in Malta  called “Innovation Challenge: Go Green”, where I needed to identify an environmental problem, come up with a green innovative solution, assess its feasibility, and submit a proposal for evaluation.The environmental problem I want to tackle is the cigarette filter littering. I have developed a procedure to collect cigarette filters and recycle them into toxic-free plastic souvenirs that generates benefits to finance the whole process. The project aims to raise awareness about the negative impact of cigarette filter littering in both the environment and public health. As well as engage citizens to cooperate with stakeholders in order to promote a social wave against littering and promote the benefits of recycling.
During my presentation I will show the main steps of this project: the campaign, the cigarette filters collection, the recycling process, the creation of a new product, the revenue stream and the investment in the Maltese environment throughout the whole project.