Zero Waste Project ends on EU Delegation

by Giuseppe Totaro

The final conference of the Med Zero Waste Project, which over the past two years has involved agencies, universities and local aof the Euro-Mediterranean area, will be held at Rome. The event is scheduled for Friday 8th June from 9:30 in the prestigious “Spazio Europa” hall, inside the palace of the EU Representation in Italy (Via IV Novembre 149, Rome). During the conference the project partners of the Zero Waste Project as well as their guests will introduce the results of the implementation of the project activities comprising interesting thoughts and perspectives in the field of sustainable waste management. The project was officially launched in May 2009 and the partnership was established by the following entities: Efxini Poli, Local Authorities' Network for Social, Cultural, Tourist, Environmental and Agricultural Development (Lead partner); Ecological Recycling Society; Aristotle University of Thessaloniki - Laboratory for Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering (Greece); BRGM - Regional Geological Survey of Provence Alpes Cote-d'Azur (France); Research Centre Bistra Ptuj (Slovenia); Municipality of Ragusa (Italy); UAB Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona - Chemical Engineering Department (Spain).

All project partners have substantial experience on waste management and through data collection and transfer of know how focused their efforts on the common goal, which is provision of expert support to Municipalities and Local Authorities for the application of “zero waste” strategies and methods. The principal objective of the project Zero Waste is the development of an integrated zero-waste management system, which will maximize resources and energy and reduce the amount of waste that finally disposed in landfills, through the deviation of materials and resources and the introduction of re-use and recycling schemes that could act as drivers of economic activity and sustainable development of the EU regions. The transnational value of the project and in particular the capitalization of best practices will help Municipalities and Local Authorities to include and actually apply in their local policies the tangible waste management tools introduced by the partners. To tackle this challenge, the project was focused on specific sensitization actions.

The project's activities are divided in 5 Components and comprising the following elements: the development of the project communication plan; the organization of infodays within thematic workshops and exhibitions; zero waste systems' surveys and analysis to evaluate waste management methods by Municipalities; the study of the operational requirements for the implementation of municipal composting facilities for household biowaste in certain municipalities in Greece, Slovenia, France and Italy; the exchange of experiences: inventories on best and worst practices and transnational SWOT analysis; the implementation procedure of alternative waste management schemes in Municipalities and the development of Regional Policy tools; the pilot application of household composting for a certain number of households in Greece, Slovenia, France and Italy.

The Zero Waste project was implemented within the program MED 2007-2013, objective 2.1 "Protection and enhancement of natural resources and heritage", and has been co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

Media interested in attending the conference may request accreditation by contacting the press office at number 0173-33777 or writing an email to giuseppe.totaro@cooperica.it. You can find the program on www.cooperica.it

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Natural Graffiti

by Emanuele Biestro

 The graffitis have always been disputed among the public opinion: who loves them, and consider them as a piece of art, and who hates them, stressing the chaos and the dirt they cause. Others think that they are only a communication tool: you write something that another people, walking absent-mindedly,read. From this comes the brilliant insight of Green Graffiti, which since 2007 use this communication tool.. in a sustainable way! The idea of this communication agency, coming from the Netherlands and then spread all over the world (so far it works in 12 States) is to use only low impact tools in the communication campaigns.  “We realize messages on squares and sidewalks using only natural materials, without adding solvents or other chemical products: reverse-graffitis created only with high-pressured water, chalk-graffitis with nebulized chalk, sand-graffitis with sand and natural glue, messages using musk and grass; in addition, we organize branded gardening events, giving new life to those green areas left abandoned”, Lorenzo Fabbri’s speaking, Green Graffiti Italia project manager. The graffitis are realized through an iron or aluminium template (like the one used by the roadmen to write on the roads, for instance), using a unique cast to reproduce the message, cast that then is completely recycled!
“The technique we use the most is the reverse-graffiti” says Lorenzo. “This method allow a relevant save of resources if compared to the paper posters, highly environmental relevant both for paper consumption and because of the water used during the production process. It is worth stressing that the water we use comes from the rain, collected through storage tanks or wells. One of our reverse-graffiti 1,50x1,50 m needs 12 liters of water, it does not produce wastes and it erases itself naturally, because it is sufficient to walk over it and the surface get dirty once again”. 
But it is not enough: indeed Green Graffiti uses two kinds of compensation, the hydric one, delivering for every graffiti 1 € to GreenAdsBlue, and the CO2 one, delivering 0,5 eurocent for every km travelled during the campaign to groenbalans, agency specialized on the CO2 compensation. 

>Concerning the communication topics, the targets are extremely various, but they could be brought back to those who attend the streets, such as pedestrians and vehicles: you can make a course, repeated messages, puns,.. Lorenzo confesses that during their jobs they get often in touch with people interested in what they are doing, notably street art or in general curious about what they are doing: at that stage we can also teach people something, mainly about sustainability! 

No doubt: graffitis have never been much greener!

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Graffiti Grannys: knitting-sized cities

by Annalisa Tancredi

New forms of urban guerrilla are literally knitting balls of thread in the United Kingdom. In Cornwall there is a new spontaneous movement of "guerilla knitting", which aims at beautify urban spaces and color gray squares and public monuments with original knitted works. Authors of these crochets are Graffiti Grannys, a group of eight women between 45 and 65 years who during the night, in anonymity, adorns benches, lampposts and fences with objects made from wool and yarn. And so in the morning the citizens are surrounded by an explosion of bright colors and funny shapes that is a touch of exceptional urban creativity making daily routine more pleasant and harmonious.

A particular re-appropriation of urban space through the artistic expression of "yarnbombing", a street art midway between the graffiti and guerrilla gardening which shares the aim to re-enhancement urban environment. Its origins can be traced back to the name of texan Magda Sayeg, who in 2005 started to decorate at first door handles of her shop with knitted and then, on commission, city-bus in Mexico City and the Smart fortwo. Graffiti Grannys, however, are reinterpreting urban environment in the UK and, despite their commitments to knit around the world, have found a moment to answer our questions.

Who are Graffiti Grannys?
«We are a group of 8 aged between 45 and 65, we also have a lady who knit for us who’s 97!»

About your history: when is your movement born?
«We started yarnbombing on 1st April 2010 where we left 68 mice on the harbour wall in Marazion, Cornwall (UK). Ever since then we try to yarnbomb once a month!»

What are your values and ideologies?
«We love to make people happy and smile when they see our work! We go out very late or very early so we are not seen, as no-one knows who we are. All our work then vanishes as people collect them! We have just got back from New York as we were invited to exhibit in an exhibition held by Vogue Knitting Live. We have had work go all over the world, people find them and then take them back to where they live abroad. We now have lots of followers on Facebook and Twitter!»

If you were in Italy, where would you like to realize a guerrilla knitting?
«If we were to yarnbomb Italy, it would be nice to make somewhere that did not look so good, into somewhere very pretty to make the people smile as they go about there work!»

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'O Sole mio

by Emanuele Biestro

How the sunbeams become energy? What is the difference between the thermic solar energy and the photovoltaic one? Do the solar panels work even if it rains? the promoters of the European Solar Days, the most important information campaign europeanwide dedicated to the promotion of the use of solar energy as heat and electricity, will answer to all of these and many more questions. The campaign is co-funded by the European Commission within the programme "Intelligent Energy Europe", aiming at living a future energetically sustainable.

The campaign will be held from the 1st to the 13th of May in Italy and in other 16 European countries. In 2012 it will be the 5th edition: the figures of the past 4 ones show that there have been organized almost one thousand events with over 300.000 participants only in Italy. All the events on local, national or European scale dealing with solar energy will be part of the European Solar Days: the past ones were mainly fairs, products displays, workshops for children and students, guided tours to solar installations, training courses, information points, all of them with one aim: free the energy of the sun!

"For this year we expect a wide attendance. It is passed almost a month after the opening of the enrolments and we recorded already 16 events and other contacts for upcoming ones. We are trying to take advantage of the social networks, advertising the campaign on Facebook with a page dedicated to the event" say Concetta Laudicina and Riccardo Battisti, members of the National Secretary of the European Solar Days in Italy.

Actually, the strength of this campaign lives in the difference of the proponents of the events and as a consequence of the ways to communicate: the initiatives will be set by firms, NGOs, local authorities, schools or private citizens and they will be recorded on a list available at www.eusd.it, where through an interactive map we can see all the events programmed all over the Europe, promoted by local and national media.

The event will be organized in association with Ambiente Italia and Legambiente, and the support of Assolterm, Coordinamento Agende 21 Locali Italiane, Gifi, Kyoto Club, Qualenergia and Solarexpo.

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New urban scenes ... of garbage

by Eleonora Anello

How have the streets of our city to the door to door collection of waste? Often this areas do not look so nice. In the worst cases, they tend to resemble small unauthorized landfills. Meanwhile, however, it is a price to pay to get a better quality of recycling. In Auckland, New Zealand, instead, they have found a creative and glamour way for collecting the garbage, thanks to the campaign "Beautify Your City”.

The design project took shape in the distribution of special garbage bags depicting green hedges or colored pansies, instead of traditional bags for collection. The unsightly red envelopes have been banned during the blitz called "Trash Day" and replaced with green ones offered by the citizens and businesses of downtown. The streets of the city were thus converted into neat and unexpected green spaces where even the garbage is not able to alter the urban decor.

This phase of the campaign, which started in November 2011, aimed to combat fly-tipping of waste, especially that of oils and educate traders to take out the trash at the right time, to avoid small temporary landfills in the city. The inititive was carried out by the association of downtown merchants Heart of the City along with the municipal administration in view of the Rugby World Cup.

«The flower beds will help to beautify the problem areas of the city and and remind businesses and residents of the need to do their bit to keep the city clean», said Jane Stewart, Project Manager , Heart of the City. At the launch of the campaign, she added: «The CBD is the heart of Auckland city and the state of our streets leaves a lasting impression on visitors. This is an important time to win the hearts and minds of tourists as well as improve the environment for residents and workers».

"Beautify Your City" has created an atmosphere so evocative that has been immortalized by several images that have flooded the Web in a short time and that have been around the world, reaching an unexpectedly target. To show that aesthetics can not be underestimated, we are pleased to present this best practice, so that other communicators and other administrators make more livable and more beautiful their cities. And who knows whether a glamorous and fun bag will be able to make more enjoyable and profitable the challenging task of waste collection and separation, inescapable duty of every citizen.

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Mobile phones for the environment

by Eleonora Anello

Born for responding to the need of communicating in mobility, nowadays the mobile phones can do so many things that it’s reductive to call them just phones.

Browsing through the several apps, easy-to-use tools of advanced functions, it’s not difficult to find something “green”. By using our phone it’s possible to care about the environment, in many different ways. Regarding the consumer goods, we signal the app Goodguide.

Looking at the users’ comments, it seems to be one of the best eco-friendly apps. Once it’s downloaded, it can be launched every time we are about to buy a product. By putting the objective over the barcode of the product it’s possible to verify what we are buying on the basis of parameters such as the respect of the environment, the health and the social responsibility of the manufacturer. At present the database includes 120.000 products, a number constantly rising, thanks to the users’ reports.

The app, which works also on the web, helps the aware consumers and, at the same time, pushes the companies towards a better transparency and a certain kind of conduct. Goodguide isn’t intended to influence the decisions of the consumers, but instead to allow him to make a more aware decision. Its use is even easier for the online shopping, thanks to the new toolbar, supported by Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

This ambitious project was born on the quiet in 2007, when Professor Dara O’Rouke, from the University of California, Berkeley, wondered about the goodness of the sun protection cream he was putting on his daughter. After an investigation, he found out that just that cream contained a toxic ingredient.

Useful and enjoyable, Goodguide allows to create personalized lists of favourite products and to share them. It also suggests products to buy instead of the ones that total a low score, by making a sort of ranking of the “fairest” products.

We have tested the app on the products bought by a family composed of four individuals, two adults and two children. Only one product resulted to be present in the database. It was a face cream by a famous French branch, sold in the pharmacies. It totalled a very high score. It’s not clear why the barcode of the Coke couldn’t be read by the system. The limitations of the app thus appear clear: it includes only goods commercialized in the States and it’s not supported enough by the users’ feedbacks. In this respect we believe that, in times when sharing the information can make the difference, limiting the contribution of the people may be a big handicap. This is particularly relevant for projects that are present on platforms encouraging the interaction, such as Twitter, or Facebook, where Goodguide is present with more than 10.000 fans.

“At present and for the next future, we are not planning to expand the app to the European market. We are focusing on the States – answered to us Mia Gralla, marketing manager of Goodguide - As for the choice of the products, we opened to users and companies, allowing them to suggest which products evaluate and include in our program, in the following address: http://www.goodguide.com/product_suggestions/leaders##popular”.

We can deduce from this that being present on the web, and particularly on the Applestore, is and extraordinary promotional tool. It makes of a useful guide an object of desire, at least for who can’t fully make use of it.

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We are 7 billion people!

by Eleonora Anello

On October, 31, 2011, Danica May Camacho was born in the Philippines. Danica is not just a newborn baby but also the citizen number 7 billion of the world, as said the UN global counter. In fact, “baby-7-billion”, who won a scholarship, is the icing on the cake of a broad communicative action.

Early last year, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) launched "7-billion actions - A global movement for all humanity", a campaign that will continue throughout the whole 2012 aimed at highlighting those positive action carried out by individuals or organizations for facing global development-related challenges. By sharing these experiences in an open forum, the initiative aims at fostering communication and collaboration across a more and more populated and interdependent world, as evidenced by the report "The 7 billion world: people, opportunities", which brings to light an unstoppable urbanization. The study photographed a world characterized by great mobility (in particular migrations from south to north and, within south countries, from rural to urban areas. Hoping to improve economic conditions, this migration will cause a progressive wild urbanization, which ultimately affect the environment and the quality of life of the population.

7 themes were identified in order to engage and to inform the public about these issues: poverty and social injustice, empowerment of women, reproductive health, youth, elderly, environment, urbanization.

Joining the movement is very simple and you can do it in several ways. In addition to stories, which can be personal or involve other people, NGOs and/or companies who committed in favor of humanity, you can try to compose your personal version of the song "United", anthem anybody can interpret with personal style and instruments. The Playing for Change Foundation will select some versions for being part of a final mix.

There is even the "1 of 7 Billion" short films contest, organized by the Foundation 10.12.48. Cinema, as well as music, becomes a powerful mean, a universal language ​​particularly suitable for spreading the debate on crucial issues. Furthermore, cinema and music can give a more human face to those challenges the planet (and especially the environment) is facing.

For fresh updates you can tune in on the most popular social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, or read the blog. This is an all-round campaign, which leaves nothing to chance and which also employs the most classic communication resources such as brochures and fact sheets (addressed both inside and outside the United Nations), posters and videos. To ease individuals’ actions, has also been formulated a model of letter.

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Sometimes they come back: if plastic bags arise against those who dispersed them into the environment?

by Francesca Morra

Imagine if the container of your plastic grocery bags started walking across the home, or if the door of the pantry where you hid the nearly 300 bags the average person uses per year, opened up and begin to go out scaring guests during Christmas holidays. Imagine if, slowly, all plastic bags gathered to create a humanoid form 3-storeys high and began to move around the city and schools. Imagine how you would react...

This is what actually happened in Shanghai: the association Roots &Shoots, together with the agency Bates141, a network dedicated to communications and marketing, created an interesting and very effective advertising campaign about pollutant effects of plastic bags spread in the environment. They built an inflatable monster made ​​of plastic bags donated by the schools’ students, which circulated across streets and schools striking spectators.

The claim that accompanies the monster is "Waste plastic bags and they'll come back to haunt you" which, associated with the menacing image of the monster, stirred the heart of many students who witnessed the "birth" of this creature.

The supporting foundation is Roots and Shoots, which aims at educating new generations to environmental respect. The association's mission is precisely to raise awareness among young students because, as stated by Tori Zwisler, coordinator of environmental education projects «When you're doing environmental education you are educating not only children but also adults. If a kid saves energy also his parents will begin to do it, and then the neighbors and their families and so on ...».

Considering that plastic shopping bags are a waste most people do not realize to produce, we believe the visual impact of all these bags coming to life served the purpose of creating doubt in people who saw that.

Start thinking these 3 kilograms of plastic waste per year are easily avoidable becomes simpler and immediate if a monster of that magnitude is above us!

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Spazio Etico presents his project: Voce del verbo “RI-CELLULARE”

by Valeria Rocca

Have you ever heard about the “Witness of the snail”? The Austrian thinker Ivan Illich said «The snail teaches us the way to think of a happy and friendly “de-growth society”. Building the delicate architecture of its shell with larger and larger coils, the snail has to stop and begin to create diminishing convolutions to avoid that a too large one, rather than contributing to its wellbeing, become a serious overweight». The metaphor is easy to understand: the man must pursue his welfare making choices in respect of the environment and the world, exactly like the snail, without excessing.

Spazio Etico, an association working in many different fields in Lazio, supports this philosophy. According to Spazio Etico, if our everyday decisions can positively affect the world around us, why not to commit ourselves to avoid waste? Among their many activities, the project “Voce del verbo Ri-Cellulare” deserves special attention.

Recent studies say the cell is the most popular gadget in the world and the most frequently replaced. Do the people recycle their old mobile phones? Only the 3% of the word population. Recycling mobile phones is instead very important because it enables to reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from landfill disposal of mobile phones and their batteries, to correctly dispose toxic materials contained in the cellphones (lead, cadmium, lithium), to prevent health problems, and to recover valuable metals. For more information we asked Mauro Speranza (project manager) some questions.

When was the idea of the project “Ri-cellulare” born and what are the main reasons that prompted you to promote it?
«The project "Voce del verbo Ri-cellulare”, was ideated in late 2009 as part of SPAZIO ETICO. On one hand we had the willingness to do something for helping the world we live in while on the other hand we realized that the increasing quantity of mobile phones does not correspond to an easy disposal system. In fact, very few people go to depots to dispose phones. So? Highly polluting items crowd the landfills or, at best, lie in drawers full of unused equipment».

Through which means was the project promoted?
«We planned a specific communication campaign using different channels, both classic and modern. First, we use the internet: the association’s website hosts a dedicated section and in the same time we use social networks. Furthermore, we don’t forget traditional channels such as social and cultural events. Information meetings and workshops were carried out in order to spread the activities and raise public awareness about the environmental impact of mobile phones, especially if they are not disposed by law. Collaborating with other associations which share the same values is very important for spreading knowledge of our activities. In addition to the associations, we are trying to involve the public bodies of the Lazio Region and of the Province of Rome (which sponsored the project) and the Municipality of Rome. An information campaign is also about to start in many schools».

Which objectives do you want to achieve with this project?
«We want to collect a growing number of used mobile phones in order to spread an environment-friendly culture, intended as a set of daily activities anyone can achieve in his daily routine. Furthermore, the association is trying to spread the culture of the “de-growth” and of the waste fighting, and this project pursues this aim».

Are you currently satisfied of the achieved results?
«The satisfaction is twofold: on one hand first results are encouraging in terms of number of collected phones (more than 2000), but above all we are realizing how much people can do if properly informed about the consequences of their actions».

Are you planning to export your project to other Italian regions?
«Exporting the project closely follows the interest it’s having across Italy. It's common to be contacted by other associations and partnerships are starting with some realities, especially in the Calabria region. Indeed, we are willing to support anyone who proves helpful in this regard».

We accept and spread with pleasure the invitation of Spazio Etico. All necessary information are available on the website.

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