EWWR 2020 to kick off with over 10,600 actions

For its 12th edition, over 10,600 actions related to waste reduction, products reuse, materials recycling, as well as clean-ups will be carried out across 32 countries in Europe and beyond.

The EWWR is a leading international campaign to promote waste prevention through awareness-raising actions organised during a single week in November. The objective of these actions is to change the behaviour surrounding consumption patterns and waste generation habits to reach waste and climate targets.

Participants are as diverse as schools, public administrations, companies, NGOs, and citizens. The EWWR brings them all together to take action at different levels: local, regional, national, and international.

Each year, the EWWR selects a specific aspect of waste reduction on which to focus. For the 12th edition, the chosen theme is invisible waste, namely that waste that is out of sight to most of us because it is generated during the manufacturing of products. This theme highlights the need to prevent waste all along the life cycle of a product, challenging participants to make invisible waste visible and get to know the “real weight” they carry home after a purchase.

The 12th edition of the EWWR comes in an unprecedented time of crisis and uncertainty. Nevertheless, once again the campaign has received impressive traction and mobilised thousands of people who found creative ways of raising awareness far from crowds.

The waste sector has not been exempted by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. On the contrary, this crisis has made it very clear how the health of people and the health of our planet are closely interlinked.

Throughout the pandemic, circular economy stayed high on the EU policy agenda and calls have been made to include circular economy in post Covid-19 recovery plans. In an article published by the Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation, Janez Potočnik stated that “the European Green Deal and post-Covid-19 are two sides of the same coin. No flipping required”.

Against this backdrop, the EWWR mantra “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”, in the wider scope of optimising resource management and contributing to circular economy, stays an all-important message.