05/20/2016 - 00:00

The European Week for Waste Reduction rewards the best actions implemented in 2015

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The EWWR Awards Ceremony took place last Wednesday, 11th of May 2016, in Brussels, where our honoured Jury handed out the awards to the most outstanding awareness-raising actions implemented during the EWWR 2015.

The six winners, one in each of the following categories: Administration/Public Authority, Association/NGO, Business/Industry, Educational Establishment, Citizens, and Others, were very happy to come on stage and accept their well-deserved awards.

The ceremony took place in the evening of the international conference "Circular Economy in practice: Rethinking our production and consumption models", organised by Brussels Environment in collaboration with ACR+. Both these events were the perfect occasion to learn and discover concrete examples of circular economy actions.

The Award winners

Amongst the 18 finalists, six actions were awarded in the ceremony, one for each of the six categories of Action Developers:

1) Administration/Public Authority

A Tiana reduïm els residus – Ajuntament de Tiana (Catalonia, Spain)

Substantial effort for waste management was made this year in Tiana. They succeeded in implementing activities that followed the 3Rs: workshops on reuse, exchanging points for clothes, shelters for reusing bulky materials, leftovers recipes competition, the campaign entitled "Where are you going without a basket?"; engaging some 2,800 citizens.

2) Association/NGO

LuogoComune (SharingPlaces) – Il Formicaio Aps (Lecce, Puglia, Italy)

Il Formicaio or "The ant’s nest" was rewarded in this category thanks to its activities aiming to raise awareness on the concept of Gift economy". The activities included the opening of a Gift Free shop or Bazar del Dono, a tasting session where organic and ethical products were promoted, workshops in English on environmental issues, swap parties and sartorial labs promoting eco-fashion but also a Global Climate March.

3) Business/Industry

Mes déchets valent de l'Or (My waste is worth gold) – Village Partenaire scrl (Brussels, Brussels Capital Region, Belgium)

Village Partenaire scrl organised a competition for ideas that would involve the centre’s entrepreneurs in waste management. This happened under the framework of the Brussels Waste Network which has the aim of reducing waste in all the Brussels business centres. The participants proposed their ideas and then they voted to elect the best ones which will be implemented. The winning ideas were: composting of organic waste, coffee grounds collection to grow mushrooms and installation of a chicken coop.

4) Educational Establishment

Ne dobd ki, használd újra! (Do not throw away your future!) - Pumuckl German Nationality Kindergarten (Érd, Pest County, Hungary)

The name of this activity is significant and so is its development. The Kindergarten in Érd, Hungary, focused on a program which respected the waste hierarchy of reduction and prevention, reusing, sorting and recycling. The children are thus initiated from a young age about environmental issues and especially waste.

5) Citizens

Differenziamoci 2015 (Diversifying 2015) - Nerina Palazzolo (Paternò, Sicily, Italy)

The mothers of Paternò, or as the informal group is called in Italian "Mamme in Commune", along with the Administration of the city, the local waste collection and transportation firm, organised a series of activities under the initiative of Nerina Palazzolo. These considered educational tours, recycling laboratories, a "WasteArt" exhibition, workshops on littering and two days dedicated to the Reuse and Recycle themes.

6) Others

Waste Away – Waste reduction week in Wedding – Baumhaus Projekt, Himmelbeet and WeddingWandler (Berlin, Germany)

Three local cultural institutions joined forces for a full week of waste reduction in Berlin: challenging participants to a zero waste week, a Circular Economy Lab talk, involvement of children in Upcycling games, guided tours in Wedding showing a low waste lifestyle and a variety of workshops.

For more information about the EWWR Awards winners and finalists, please have a look at the complete press file, available here.

The EWWR – Key event in waste management

Since 2009 and throughout the years, the EWWR has become a major event in waste reduction with more than 61,000 actions implemented. In 2015, the number amounted to 12,035 actions developed by 40 Coordinators in 33 countries on a national, regional and local level, in cooperation with the EWWR Secretariat. Every year, the EWWR network of public authorities and stakeholders grows and shows their commitment and interest in the field of waste prevention.

This 7th edition mainly focused on the topic of Dematerialization: Doing more with less! It stands on the principles of resource efficiency because by using less material there is less waste produced.

We look forward to the 2016 edition from 19th to 27th of November on Packaging waste. We warmly invite you to join the EWWR and gather more wonderful experiences!