European Week for Waste Reduction Third Edition
4th Edition of the EWWR: 17-25 November 2012
Under the patronage of Mr Janez Poto?nik, European Commissioner for the Environment
More than 10,000 awareness raising actions implemented in 2012
According to the last count, 10,793 EWWR actions were validated to take place during the 2012 edition, between 17 and 25 November. The record from last year has been broken (7035 actions were implemented in 2011, 4346 in 2010 and 2672 in 2009)!
One word to summarise the actions implemented in 2012: diversity. If you travelled in countries participating in the EWWR during the week, you might have talked with students acting as waste prevention ambassadors, admired pieces of art (made of bottle caps, plastic bags or clothes), compared shopping trolleys (one regular and one containing less packaged products) presented at the entrance of supermarkets, visited reuse centres or exhibitions of furniture made of reused products, eaten in restaurants with tailor-made food waste reducing menus, tasted different types of water (bottled water and tap water) at water fountains, watched a giant sculpture representing an ogre made of the quantity of waste produced per person per year, or taken part in competitions and treasure hunts about waste prevention. It is impossible to list all of the actions that will happened, but all validated EWWR actions are listed on the EWWR website.
Press release in English andFrench.
Results of the EWWR 2009-2011
- 3 editions of the Week (2009, 2010, 2011) taking place in more than 30 countries
- Over 14.000 awareness raising actionsimplemented, with a success growing every year
- 34 Organisers mobilising stakeholders and validating their actions
More information about the results of the LIFE project EWWR: EWWR layman's report
What is the European Week for Waste Reduction
With 502kg of municipal waste generated on average per person in the EU Member States (2010, 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.
Under the coordination of the EWWR Organisers and with the support of the European Secretariat of the Week, a variety of Project developers, including administrations, associations and NGOs, businesses and industry, educational establishments, etc. got involved in the EWWR by carrying out awareness-raising actions on waste reduction, with various targeted audiences (citizens, employees, pupils, etc.). Focusing on the various stages of the 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 in everyday life to help contribute to waste reduction. These actions were focused on one or several of the 5 following themes: Too much waste – Better production – Better consumption – A longer life for products – Less waste thrown away.
The EWWR was initiated by a group of 5 project partners: ADEME (France, Project Coordinator), ACR+ – Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling and for sustainable Resource management (acting as European Technical Secretariat), ARC - ACR+ member (Catalonia, Spain), LIPOR-ACR+ member (Greater Porto, Portugal) and IBGE- ACR+ member (Brussels, Belgium).
EWWR tools encourage wide participation
In order to help EWWR Organisers and Project developers to promote the EWWR and to raise awareness about waste prevention, several communication tools are available, in particular:
- a EWWR guide of good practices that compiles the best actions implemented during the editions 2009 to 2011 of the European Week for Waste Reduction
- communication tools (posters, leaflet, web banners, etc.)
- factsheets about how to prepare EWWR Common Actionsand Batucamob
- an online game and an electronic comic strip
- a Facebook page
The most outstanding European Week for Waste Reduction actions of each edition are rewarded at the European Waste Reduction Awards Ceremony. The last awards ceremony took place in Paris on 19 June, during the international conference highlighting the main results of the project during the past 3 years.
- Final International Conference of the EWWR Project and Awards Ceremony, 19-20 June, Paris, France.
The programme can be dowloaded here - Check the press release here
More information:
Press section of the EWWR website
With the support of the European Commission