Nov 17 2012
After three successful editions, the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) will run for the fourth time between 17 and 25 November 2012, with the aim of informing European citizens about the simple actions that they can take in everyday life to reduce their waste. The fourth EWWR edition will take place under the patronage of Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner for the Environment.
More actions, more countries, more people involved!
According to the last count, 10,793 EWWR actions will be implemented in 2012. Once again, the previous year's record has been broken! (7035 actions in 2011). During the Week, works of art, contests, conferences, workshops and many other activities will raise awareness of consumers, employees, students and others on the need to reduce the 2.7 billion tonnes of waste we produce annually in Europe (source: EEA). These thousands of actions will also give tips, advice and examples of good practices on how to concretely prevent waste from being produced, encouraging actions like composting at home, drinking tap water, reusing and repairing goods, renting products instead of buying them, etc.
In order to coordinate and promote the 2012 Week, 35 Organisers from across 23 countries are mobilising stakeholders and validating their actions. The complete list of Organisers and actions can be found on the EWWR website.
At the national level, the European Week for Waste Reduction will take place in Andorra, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Sweden, the Netherlands and Benin.
At regional and local level, the EWWR is being organised in Belgium (Brussels-Capital Region and the Walloon Region), as well as the Styria region in Austria, the Greater Porto area (Portugal), Crete (Greece), the Sarajevo Canton in Bosnia and Herzegovina, many parts of Spain (Asturias, the Basque Country, Catalonia, Navarra, Valencia) and the UK (London, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the regions of Merseyside and Oxfordshire, and the cities of Belfast and Warrington), along with the Brazilian region of Minas Gerais and Reykjavik, Iceland.
Moreover, the EWWR Secretariat, hosted by ACR+, has promoted the Week and coordinated registrations from areas not covered by any EWWR Organiser. We have received projects from Flanders and several regions in Spain and the UK, as well as from other countries including Luxembourg, Norway, Romania and Switzerland.
Together take action, reduce waste!
Under the coordination of the 35 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. get involved in the EWWR by carrying out awareness-raising actions about waste reduction, with various target audiences (citizens, employees, pupils, etc.).
These actions will focus on the various stages of the product cycle, ranging from production and consumption to reuse. They will focus 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.
A guide of EWWR good practices outlining communication actions successfully implemented between 2009 and 2011 is available on the EWWR website, along with other ideas of activities.
As in 2011, several "common actions" will take place during the Week in different locations in Europe using the same methods, sharing the common objective of highlighting their real impact on waste reduction. There are five categories of common actions, focusing on various symbolic issues: Paper waste reduction; Food waste reduction; Repair & reuse; Excessive packaging waste reduction; Clean-up days (to highlight the amount of waste thrown away).
The most outstanding European Week for Waste Reduction actions will be rewarded through the EWWR awards competition.
Source: http://www.ewwr.eu