European Week for Waste Reduction
2639 actions across Europe for the first edition!
With 522kg of municipal waste generated on average per person in
the EU Member States (2007, Eurostat), raising awareness about
waste reduction and promoting changes in production and consumption
patterns is more urgent than ever.
With the support of the Information and Communication component
of the LIFE+ Programme over a 3 year period (2009-2011), the
European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) aims to promote
sustainable waste reduction actions, to highlight the impact of our
consumption on the environment and on climate change, and to make
known the policies of the EU and Members States on the reduction of
waste, including the recent revision of the Waste Framework
Directive.
The project will progressively extend its scope in Europe over the
three editions of the Week, reaching as wide an audience as
possible.
The EWWR was initiated by a group of 5 project partners: ADEME
(France, Project Coordinator), ACR+ (European network,
Secretariat), ARC (Catalonia, Spain), LIPOR (Greater Porto,
Portugal) and IBGE (Brussels, Belgium).
First edition: 21-29 November 2009
In 2009, the first ever official European Week for Waste
Reduction was organised from 21st to 29th November by 19
pioneering public authorities across 10 European countries!
More precisely, the EWWR took place at national level in
Estonia, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Sweden and Andorra, and
at regional level in Belgium (Brussels Capital Region, Flemish
Region, Walloon Region), many parts of Spain
(Catalonia, Gipuzkoa, Balearic Islands, Navarra, Valencia) and
many parts of the UK (Scotland, Wales, the East of England region,
the City of Belfast).
Furthermore, in regions and countries which did not sign in
officially, stakeholders were able to participate in the Week
by registering their actions with the EWWR Secretariat.
Encouraging wide participation
Coordinated by these 19 authorities, at local level a variety of
actors, including public authorities or administrations,
associations/NGOs, businesses/industry, educational establishments,
etc., got involved in the Week as “Project Developers”
by carrying out awareness-raising actions on waste reduction.
Focusing on the various stages of a product cycle, ranging from
production and consumption to reuse, the aim was to inform the
greatest number possible of European citizens (employees, school
children, the general public…) about the simple actions that
can be taken up in everyday life to help contribute to waste
reduction efforts.
In addition to the multitude of decentralised events
that took place across Europe during the first edition of the
Week, a 2-day International Conference on Waste Reduction was
held in Girona on the 24th and 25th of November 2009 with the aim
of facilitating the exchange of best practices on waste reduction
across Europe, and for each year of the project, the most
outstanding EWWR actions will be rewarded at the European Waste
Reduction Awards Ceremony in Brussels.
More information:
Press
section of the EWWR website
www.ewwr.eu