The best waste is the one that is not produced!

Ideas for action 

• Information campaigns:
  • Exhibition or information booth to inform about the environmental, social and economic impact of waste and the need to reduce waste
  • Round-table discussion or a conference to inform and discuss the issue
  • Produce videos on the impact of the waste we produce and the need to reduce waste and publish it via all channels available (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, TV, Cinema…)
  • Site visits (such as: composting, social economy, repair stores for bikes, tools, clothes, furniture or electronic goods), followed by a discussion
  • Screening of awareness-raising movies (Trashed, Plastic Paradise, Bag it!, Waste Land) followed by a discussion and concrete everyday tips for the audience
  • Waste reduction competition (of short movies/games/posters etc.)
  • Promotion of No Junk Mail stickers for letterboxes
  • Showcasing the reduced environmental impact of your work-place because of the measures taken with regard to waste prevention
  • Interact with and question children on their waste production and their actual awareness of their daily school (and after school) activities
  • Brainstorming session at school: How can we reduce the waste we produce at school?
  • Initiate an “eco-citizen loyalty card” that rewards eco-behaviour or promotes sustainable business
• Reduce the use of resources:
  • “Water Bar” action: blindfold tasting of various types of water, including tap water
  • Activity to demonstrate and promote reusable nappies
  • Waste reduction action at offices (double-sided printing, reuse of one-sided paper, using water from the tab or a water dispenser, glasses/mugs instead of plastic cups, using bulk tea instead of tea bags, etc.)
  • Launch of an eco-design product
  • Adopt a policy of sustainable purchases for office/school/kitchen supplies and production lines
  • Install water coolers instead of giving out bottled water
  • Install coffee machines that accept mugs instead of plastic cups and promote the use of mugs
• Reduce packaging:
  • Workshops, for example a course on how the packaging of food could be limited
  • Promote the purchase of unpacked food
  • “Unpacking” action at cash register & raising awareness about single-use plastic bags
  • Shopping trolley comparisons: Who bought products with less packaging? How can we all improve our shopping to avoid over-packaging?
  • Information boards in supermarkets that help the consumer to opt for products with less packaging
  • Promote/offer reusable shopping bags and the use of empty supermarket cardboard boxes
  • Develop a concept on how to reuse the packaging used in your company
    Adopt a policy of sustainable purchases for office supplies / production lines / kitchen supplies
• Reduce food waste:
  In 2014, the European Week for Waste Reduction focused on food waste reduction. You can find factsheets on how to implement actions in the scope of fighting against food waste on the Prevention Thematic Day 2014 page.
  • Zero waste lunch/picnic/dinner
  • Workshop: cooking with leftovers
  • Workshops on the reading of labels (use-by dates, best before dates…)
  • Screening of short movies on food waste. You can contact the Love Food Hate Waste campaign or
  • Recycle Devon, for this purpose, or check the Love Food Film Competition
  • Start composting at home or work
  • Initiate community composting
  • Hand out shopping lists and help consumers to better plan their shopping to avoid unnecessary purchases
  • Workshop: How to avoid food waste when shopping and/or cooking?
  • Improve the concept of the school or office cafeteria to reduce the food wasted there

Whatever kind of action you are implementing: Remember to take pictures and videos and to use what you’ve achieved to develop exhibitions to show the results and to publish via all channels available (media, print, information booth, social media etc.).

Why is waste reduction so important?
Waste reduction is an emergency for the European Union. Household waste has doubled in weight since 1970 and stayed at a high level since 15 years. In 2018, 492 kg of municipal waste were generated per person in the EU Member States (EU-27, average. Source: Eurostat). This waste is the result of non-sustainable modes of production and consumption. Furthermore, the consumption of products (including their production, transport and distribution), represents nearly 50% of emissions contributing to climate change. This increase in the amount of waste to be managed requires more collection and treatment infrastructures, the cost of which puts a strain on the budgets of local and regional public authorities. In this context, waste reduction has become a simple and essential concept in the area of waste management: it is a fundamental technical factor in waste management at local level but also a notion that should remind us of the scarcity of natural resources.

Why is reuse important?

Reuse confronts the same problems than reduce: there is too much waste being produced in the European Union! By extending the lifespan of products, preparing for reuse and reuse are influential measures to reduce the amount of waste produced. Reuse has a strong value for sustainable development because it not only promotes environmental protection through waste prevention but also contributes to social aims and has economic benefits.

Reusing items decreases the use of material and energy resources and reduces pollution and natural capital degradation. Recycling does so too, but to a lesser degree.

Environmental benefits of reuse:

• Reduction of the amount of waste, including hazardous waste
• Pollution prevention
• Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global climate change
• Decreased strain on natural resources (raw materials, fuel, forests, water)
• Preservation of the “embodied energy” that was originally used to manufacture an item

Social benefits of reuse:

• Fight against poverty by providing affordable products to low income households
• Social inclusion by bringing disadvantaged people back in the labour market and society
• Job creation in collection, sorting, testing, refurbishment and reselling of items reused
• Training opportunities in fields such as driving commercial vehicles, carpentry, electrical engineering, marketing, or even handicraft and art

Economic benefits of reuse

• Monetary savings (customer: in purchases and disposal, state: less social costs through job creation and training)
• Savings in energy, materials and chemicals embodied in the appliance

Ideas for action

• Collection for reuse: Organise the collection of clothes, books, tools, furniture, electronics or other items to donate them to social enterprises, schools or reuse organisations
• Swap events
• Second-hand markets
• Creative reuse workshops/exhibitions/fashion shows
• Repair café/workshop/event/fair
• Give box
• Reused packaging
• Office supply reuse action: When disposing of archives, retrieve folders, ring binders, one-sided printed paper and other items that can be reused and reuse them yourself or donate to schools, social enterprises or reuse organisations

Read more about the benefits of reuse:

• REUSE: Challenges to boosting reuse rates in Europe. Waste Management World, 2012 (PDF)
• WRAP: Benefits of reusing & recycling bulky waste. 2011 (PDF)
• WRAP: Environmental and economic benefits of re-use (Website)

Put materials back in the product loop and save resources!

In order to ensure that waste materials get recycled, selective collection and the sorting of waste is essential. Successfully establishing selective collection schemes and encouraging citizens to sort their waste are thus crucial for improving recycling rates.

Recycling reduces the amount of waste that is landfilled or incinerated and secures that waste material, after being transformed, forms part in manufacturing new products. Through recycling, waste constitutes a source of secondary raw material. Recycling therefore helps to decrease the use of material and energy resources and reduces pollution and natural capital degradation.

Benefits of recycling

• Reduces the amount of waste and resources lost in landfills or burnt;
• Prevents pollution by reducing the need to collect new raw materials;
• Saves energy needed to make new products from raw material;
• Reduces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change;
• Helps sustain the environment for future generations;
• Helps create new well-paying jobs in the recycling and manufacturing industries.

Ideas for actions

• Exhibition or information booth to inform about the environmental, social and economic impact of waste, particularly about incineration and landfill, and the need to waste sorting and recycling;
• Developing easily understandable sorting guides for households and distribute them amongst your target audience;
• Introduce waste sorting at work, in schools, in public spaces (supported by sorting games);
• Screening of awareness-raising movies about waste and resource scarcity, followed by a discussion and concrete everyday tips for the audience;
• Site visits at recycling and composting sites, followed by a discussion;
• Movie competition on raising-awareness for the necessity of waste sorting and recycling;
• Recycling workshop/competition