Waste Reduction Week

Waste Reduction
Courtesy of Comhar SDC

Europe

The second European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) ran from the 20th to 28th November 2010. The idea of the European Week for Waste Reduction is to raise awareness about the waste reduction strategies of EU and Member States, and to encourage behaviour changes to promote more sustainable consumption and production.
The EWWR (2009-2011) is supported by the “Information and Communication” component of the LIFE+ Programme. The EWWR fosters public awareness of environmental issues among economic actors as well as among the general public.
In Ireland, EWWR Actions are coordinated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EWWR – 2009 edition met a huge success! Thanks to the commitment of all Project Developers, more than 2,670 actions were implemented across 14 European countries during this Week.
Activities on waste prevention awareness took place in all sorts of places, such as firms, restaurants, schools and even churches.

In Ireland, over 46 different events were planned all around the country for EWWR 2010, aimed at the general public as well as business and other organisations. These events were designed to highlight the ongoing work being done on waste prevention and resource efficiency in the areas of waste, water & energy.

EWWR Actions aim to

• raise awareness about EU waste reduction strategies policies;
• promote sustainable waste reduction actions across Europe;
• highlight the work accomplished by various actors, through concrete examples of waste reduction and
• encourages changes in the behaviour of Europeans (consumption, production) in everyday life.

Dr Gerry Byrne, Programme Manager, EPA Office of Climate, Licensing & Resource Use - and chair of the National Waste Prevention Committee - also welcomed the week commenting; “This special week will again highlight to each person the important role that they can play either at home, at work, travelling or at leisure to prevent waste and reduce their impact on the environment”.