Sustainable Consumption in Cities -  European Campaign on Products without Waste and Recycled Products

Objectives

The project pursues various objectives of which:

  • Emphasising the main influence local and regional authorities and, through them, the citizen-sorter-consumer may have on the preservation of the limited stocks of material resources,
  • Enlightening the environmental, social and economic contribution of waste prevention and recycling, 
  • Raising the awareness on the relation between waste, products and resources and contributing to the VIth European Environment Programme objectives to  "decouple the generation of waste from economic growth",
  • Ensuring promotion of instruments developed at the European level such as "Eco-labels" and the Integrated Product Policy, 
  • Providing support and visibility to local and regional authorities which have developed interesting initiatives to promote prevention at source and recycling,
  • Helping  local and regional authorities to take advantage of innovative initiatives in prevention, selective collection, repair and recycling of waste by concentrating on a specific waste stream such as waste from electric and electronic equipment ( WEEE ),
  • Raising awareness and providing information on eco-consumption. 

 

 

Scope

The project will include various actions closely interconnected with each other but which can be split into three main themes/axis. Each one corresponds to a Work Package:

 

 

Work package 1 - European Awareness Campaign - The Relations between the current Ways of Life and the Use of Material Resources

This work package aims at increasing the awareness on consequences of current ways of life on the depletion of natural resources and to stress the differences existing between the patterns of consumption in European Countries and other parts of the world such as the United States and developing countries. It will put into picture, for local and regional authorities, and through them, for general public the relations between waste, products and resources and will introduce the Integrated Product Policy.

 

 

Work package 2 - European Campaign - Cities, Waste Prevention and Sustainable Consumption

The campaign will raise the awareness within local and regional authorities on the influence they may have on sustainable development by promoting sustainable consumption. This will be realised by highlighting examples of good practices in sustainable consumption and more specifically in strategies for influencing behaviour through education, information and practical evidence on products without waste and recycled products. 

 

 

Work package 3 - Support Tools for Prevention at Source and Recycling of Waste of Electric and Electronic Equipment 

This work package aims at illustrating and exemplifying the economical, environmental and social dimensions of specific initiatives aiming at waste prevention at source and recycling. To this end, we will focus on a specific waste stream: Waste of Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE ). This waste has been chosen because they represent the fastest growing waste stream, with a growth rate expected to reach 5 to 10% annually in the next ten years and they contain a large number of dangerous substances. That is the reason why they make part of the top priorities the European Commission intends to address in the near future. As a result, local and regional authorities will face new obligations and this work package aims at providing municipalities with Guidelines and examples of good practices for the implementation of future European directives on WEEE. The choice of this specific waste stream will also help to highlight the economic and social dimensions of recycling and to stress the important contribution partnership with social enterprises may bring to socio-economic sustainability and welfare in Cities.

 

 

Project Coordinator 

ACRR Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling

 

Project Partners

SAT (AT), RREUSE (BE), CEMR (BE), IBGE (BE)