Waste Prevention

Participate in the European Week for Waste Reduction 2010

Have you heard about the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR)?

It’s not too late to be informed and get involved in this important event financed by EU LIFE+ Programme. This year sees the second edition of the Week which will take place from 20th - 28th November across the whole of Europe. A brochure describing the Week and its objectives is attached to this e-mail.

Why should you take part in the Week? By participating in the EWWR in 2010, your organisation can join others to take up the challenge and mobilise the public around the promotion of waste reduction actions in Europe. This will allow you to raise awareness about the waste reduction strategies and the actions going on in your country or region and help to highlight the work accomplished by the various actors included in waste reduction.

What can you do: Click here to see a list of the best actions that were carried out in 2009 and find out how simple it can be to organise a local awareness event. Click here to find a list of ideas for the actions which you could implement in your country or region during the Week.

At the political level, the revision of the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC enters into force in December 2010, whereby all EU countries should be designing a national waste prevention programme by the end of 2013. Taking part in the Week will put you in contact with key stakeholders across Europe in the prevention field, such as the European Commission, specialised European networks and national environment ministries, which will enable you to network, share best practices and remain one step ahead of the game.

How can you take part?

1. As a project developer for the next event (20-28 November 2010): EWWR developers can simply enrol their idea for an action focused on waste reduction by registering their participation with the “organiser” covering their country or region. Project developers can belong to one of the following categories: an administration/public authority, an association/NGO, a business/industry, an educational establishment or other. To register an action in 2010 Click here
2. As a regional or national organiser: EWWR organisers are public authorities competent in the field of waste prevention. They act as coordinators of the Week for their territory: promotion of the event, registration and validation of actions proposed and general coordination. These actions can be carried out by a wide variety of actors: public authorities or administrations, associations or NGOs, businesses, industries, educational establishments or other waste reduction actors. More information on the role and responsibilities of organisers can be found on the EWWR web site: Click here

This is a golden opportunity to raise visibility around the increasing challenges of waste production and, at the same time, to strengthen your image at the European level.

For more information please contact the EWWR Secretariat at: contact@ewwr.eu.

Participation in the European Week for Waste Reduction 2009

RREUSE has long been working on waste prevention and reuse at the political level (see the Waste Framework Directive section of this website), but it was only recently decided internally to communicate to a greater public and develop prevention awareness-raising activities on a wider scale. For this reason, RREUSE participation in the first European Week for Waste Reduction in 2009 (EWWR 2009) was emblematic and consisted of a three-fold participation:

• at the political level to promote the policy work of RREUSE and its impact on prevention of waste at the EU level,
• at the European opening conference in Girona which stressed the innovative aspects of prevention campaigns on the field and
• at the very grass roots level with the EU wide “Waste Watchers” campaign which was held in RREUSE members’ shops plus a dedicated event in the Brussels’ Sustainable House.

Historically, the European Week was inspired by a successful local event in Quebec, Canada, which in turn inspired a national event, the French Week for Waste Reduction which is co-organised yearly by one of the French members of RREUSE, the Réseau des Ressourceries, in collaboration with French energy and environment public agency ADEME.

In the 2009 edition, the first official edition of the Week at European level, RREUSE came forward with an innovative proposal, that is to say a common campaign to be replicated in various countries across the membership of our member networks. This campaign was called Waste Watchers (RREUSE pages describing the campaign) and was among one of the rarer EU-wide projects of the 2009 Week since it required a six month long preparation due to important coordination needs between members and also at organisers’ level as this was the first edition of the event. We can be proud of the success of this first campaign of its kind within RREUSE: in total, 634 tonnes of waste was avoided throughout the week, with 843 days of actions and almost 30,000 visitors with local events taking place in 5 different EU Member States.

The Opening Conference of the Week in Girona and the promotion of waste prevention to a wider public was also a real success: 2 members of RREUSE spoke at the main Conference (Le Réseau des Ressourceries and the UK Association of Charity Shops) and the activities of 3 members of RREUSE were presented (in addition to the RREUSE network itself), to the general public on 24th and 25th November 2009 (R&R, ACS and our Spanish member network AERESS). (RREUSE pages describing the conference)

Another success was our local event held at Brussels’ Sustainable House (RREUSE headquarters) on 26th November, which was filmed by IBGE, the Belgian organiser of the EWWR, in view of the EWWR Awards to be held in 2010 (EWWR Awards) Over this 10 day long event, two elements were combined: a “Donate and Share for the Planet” event inviting the 200 employees of Mundo B to reuse their unwanted items, and a composting challenge for the whole building during the EWWR. (RREUSE link to both events)

Waste prevention best practice:

RREUSE members have always been identified as role models of innovation regarding waste prevention initiatives across Europe and are actively engaged in awareness-raising projects to highlight the environmental benefits of best waste management practices. Our members’ activities cover every waste stream and demonstrate the best practical options for all aspects of waste avoidance, production, collection, transfer, treatment and disposal to provide a better understanding for the general public and ensure people are adopting the best habits when dealing with their waste. This link gives details of the current waste avoidance and reduction activities going on across the RREUSE network plus links to numerous project websites. (RREUSE Best Practice Projects on Waste Prevention, [PDF, 69 kB])

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