Every year, the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) collects thousands of actions from all European countries meant to raise awareness on the necessity of a strong reduction of waste produced and discard. Schools, public institutions, enterprises, civil society and citizens are the actors called to get involved in this transnational event.
EWWR is an international campaign of environmental communication, born in 2009 thanks to European Commission LIFE+ Program. Its main goal is to inform institutions, citizens and other stakeholders about the European legislation concerning waste reduction (2008/98/CE) and at the same time to involve these actors actively.
The campaign enlightens how excessive amount of waste is produced. Prevention is the core aspect considered in the event, following the principle of the “3 Rs”: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. All these possibilities must be considered before the discard, in order to transform waste into resources.
According to the hierarchy showed in this picture, reduction should always be the priority in order to face this issue, preventing the creation at the source. Secondly, objects could be reused for new purposes, avoiding their discard. Recycle has to be considered the last option in the fight against waste abundance.
Thematic focus
Every year EWWR is characterised by a thematic focus, which collects the main part of the actions. In 2020, attention was raised around invisible waste.
Nonetheless, four other core aspects in the reduction of waste are considered every year as themes of the event: Clean-up actions, Reuse and preparing for reuse, Strict avoidance and reduction at source, Waste sorting and recycling.
Promoting Committee
Italian Promoting Committee is composed by: CNI Unesco, as permanent guest; Italian Ministry for Ecologic Transition; Sicilian Region; ANCI; Città Metropolitana di Torino; Legambiente; Utilitalia; AICA (International Association for the Environmental Communication) as organizing secretariat; ERICA soc. coop. as technical partner.
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