Promoting waste prevention will be the central focus in Brussels and across Europe from 17-25 November this year. This will be the fourth annual European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR), supported by five official Project Partners of the EU LIFE+ Project from different parts of Europe, which promote EWWR in their respective territories.
The aim of EWWR is to raise awareness about waste reduction strategies, to improve knowledge of EU policies on waste reduction and to promote sustainable waste reduction across Europe. It will also highlight the waste reduction work of various organisations and encourage changes in the everyday lives of European citizens.
The 2011 EWWR was a hailed as a success by organisers. Over 7,000 actions were organised across 32 European countries (compared to around 3,400 actions in 2010).
During the lead up to EWWR, official organisers are appointed based on their competence in waste reduction throughout each participating country to supervise actions in their regions. They then work alongside registered Project Developers, who can be from a range of local authorities, non-government organisations, businesses and educational establishments. These authorities, having proposed awareness-raising actions consequently approved and supported by the official organisers, are now in the process of putting these events together in time for EWWR.
Typical regional actions include swap events (book and clothes swaps, jumble sales), local demonstrations on cutting down household waste, for instance by creating recipes out of leftovers, and donating items for reuse (furniture, refurbished electrical items).
As well as actions organised separately by Project Developers, EWWR ‘common actions’ are also being implemented, using one methodology across Europe to raise awareness and encourage global action. These are implemented in four main target areas: paper waste reduction, food waste reduction, repair/reuse and excessive packaging waste reduction.
Global clean-up days will also be set up by the EWWR partners to encourage people to collect illegally dumped waste from natural environments (for example rivers, forests and beaches) and from our own city streets. These encourage citizens to be more aware of their environmental impact on their natural surroundings, as well as initiating more community spirit in addressing these issues.
UK regions are now organising themselves in preparation for EWWR 2012. Organisers so far include the West Sussex Waste Prevention Advisors, the Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority and Waste Awareness Wales. Details of forthcoming local actions and events will become available in the next couple of weeks, during the lead-up to EWWR 2012.
For more information, visit the EWWR website.
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