The European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) initiative has announced the finalists of the EWWR Awards 2015.

The awards were created in 2009 to reward the ‘most outstanding waste-reducing actions’ carried out across Europe as part of the EWWR, which promotes the implementation of awareness-raising actions about sustainable resource and waste management during a single week.

The EWWR awards are hosted by ACR+ (the Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling), the leading partner in the project.

EWWR Coordinators - public authorities that have competences in the field of waste management - submitted nominations for more than 50 projects that took place over EWWR 2014 (22-30 November).

The jury, composed of ‘personalities from the environmental sector’ and waste management professionals, then chose three finalists for each of the ceremony’s six categories.

This year’s four-person jury comprises:

• Piotr Barczak, Project Officer for Air and Waste at the European Environmental Bureau;
• Michael Steurer, Advisor for EU Affairs for Energy & Environment at the Foundation for Environmental Education;
• Rachel Boyle, International LEAF Director at the Foundation for Environmental Education; and
• Gunther Wolff, from the European Commission Environment Directorate-General.

They chose the following finalists for each category for their: visibility and communication; good practice, originality and exemplarity; quality of content and focus on waste reduction, products reuse or materials recycling; European repeatability; and lasting impact and evaluation.

Finalists

The three finalists for each category are:

Administrations/ Public Authorities:

• ‘Food Waste - Appreciate Food instead of Throwing it Away!’, implemented by AWA Entsorgung GmbH;
• ‘Food wastage in prison: let's reduce waste there too!’, implemented by Strasbourg detention centre; and
• ‘Kajmans kalas’ (‘Kajmans birthday party’), implemented by the Department of Sustainable Waste and Water, City of Gothenburg.

Associations/Non-Governmental Organisations:

• ‘Educating with Energy’, implemented by Educafrica;
• ‘foodwe.org, la plateforme des dons alimentaire’ (‘foodwe.org, the food donations platform’), implemented by Foodwe; and
• ‘Turning imperfect products into opportunities’, implemented by Associació Espigoladors.

Business/Industry:

• ‘Cibo in spazzatura spreco in natura’ (‘Don’t feed waste’), implemented by Simply spa;
• ‘Pesa i Pensa’ (‘Weight and Think’), implemented by Campos Estela; and
• ‘United Against Waste Challenge’, implemented by Unilever Food Solutions.

Educational Establishments:

• ‘Mangio Consapevolmente e Senza Sprechi’ (‘Eating Consciously and Without Waste!’), implemented by 1° Istituto Comprensivo di Melilli – Siracusa;
• ‘One week for waste reduction – 600 clicks for the environment’, implemented by Bethlen Gábor ÚÁG Kincskereső Tagiskolája; and
• ‘Recycling - Thinking Green’, Implemented by First Private Mathematical Gymnasium.

Individual citizen:

• ‘Un an sans poubelles’ (‘A year without waste bins’), implemented by Yacine Canamas;
• ‘Waste Not Want Not Composter Design’, implemented by Emma Hickey; and
• ‘Waste sorting, recycling and reuse in our village’, implemented by Greksa Lászlóné.

Other:

• ‘Fomento de la 4ª R de Responsabilidad’ (‘Promoting Responsibility with the 4th R’), implemented by Hospital San Agustín
• ‘Minimisation of uneaten hospital meals’, implemented by Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital; and
• ‘Per fare un uovo ci vuole…‘ (‘To make an egg it takes…’), implemented by CEAS di Lula (Center of Environmental Education).

One winner for each category will be announced at the EWWR Awards Ceremony, which is to be held in Budapest on 27 May.

European Week for Waste Reduction

The annual European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) is financed by the European Commission’s LIFE+ programme (2013-2017), and aims to raise awareness of the economical and environmental impacts of throwing things away.

The sixth edition of the week ran between 22 and 30 November 2014 and focused on food waste prevention.

Run under the patronage of European Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Karmenu Vella, and European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis, EWWR aims to reduce the amount of waste European citizens create, as it has been found that the average person creates around 500 kilogrammes of waste a year.

Find out more about the EWWR Awards.