In Paris, a 3 days on waste reduction

by Francesca Morra

In the heart of the Ville Lumière, in the charming neighborhood of “Invalide”; a short walk from the Place de la Concorde, from the 18th to 20th June there was talk of waste reduction and how it is possible and actually achievable in many areas of France and Europe.

Three days of intense meetings: on Monday afternoon there was the COSTEC meeting (The scientific and technic committee of the European Week for Waste Reduction), which was attended by all the national organizers (Andorra; Austria: Styrian Region; Belgium: Brussels Capital Region, Flemish Region, Walloon Region; Brazil: State of Minas Gerais; Denmark; Dominican Republic; Finland; France; Germany; Ireland; Italy; Malta; Portugal: national, Greater Porto; Slovenia; Spain: Asturias, Bizkaya, Catalonia, Gipuzkoa, Navarra, Valencia; Sweden; The Netherlands; United Kingdom: Belfast, Buckinghamshire, East England Region, London, Scotland, Wales, Warrington; this year there will also be Estonia, Hungary, Iceland and Benin) and where there were presented the results of the previous editions. And what about the future? All the committed organizations want to continue to organize the SERR, despite the uncertain future of funding for the project Life+.

Tuesday morning more than 800 people gathered at the Maison de la Chimie, for the first European Meeting on the Prevention of Waste. On stage, different actors spoke in recounting their experiences of communication campaigns for waste reduction. For Italy, Roberto Cavallo spoke of communication campaigns on composting in Asti and promotion of detergents on draught of the Province of Turin. In the afternoon a representative of the European Commission unit, Alban de Villepin, talked about the 20 years of Life+, what is it and how it is structured. Then Valerie Jouvin, chef of the EWWR, explained and presented the results of three years project. After that, Mathieu Hestin talked about difficulties, strengths and outcomes of the impact of the communication campaign under way with the EWWR. The final outcome of the communication campaign will be presented in late July. After listening to 3 point of views of many project partners (Belgium, Catalonia and Porto) Olivier Declercq (ACR) and Toomas Trapido (foundation Let do it, Estonia) have discussed the future of the "Week": the 4 "historical" partners (ADEME - LIPOR-Port - Catalan Agency for Recycling - Brussels Environnement) have made available to ACR + (Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling, Brussels) a fund to ensure coordination at European level of the EWWR for the next 18 months. During the afternoon the awards for 2011 edition were held which has been discussed last week on envi.info.

The technical conference on Wednesday, June the 20th, organized by ADEME (Agency for Environment and Energy Management) witnessed several speakers, leaders of many seminars. This day allowed participants to have more information and better understanding of some specific issues: food waste, washable nappies and incentive methods for players in regions to reduce hazardous waste. In each of these events the public has participated actively interacting with the speakers.

 The effective participation of the public showed a real interest about waste reduction. The same can be applied to public authorities and the actors who daily work on waste reduction. For three days Paris was the center of waste reduction, we hope that the work will continue on this road and it will spread everywhere in Europe (and beyond).