Ihobe promotes this week of awareness on waste, which will take place between the 18th and 26th, and the best initiatives presented in the Basque Country will be recognized and will compete for the European award.

For seven days, participating organizations will carry out awareness-raising activities on sustainable waste management, in what has become the largest campaign on waste prevention in Europe. This edition, the awareness actions focus on the issue of packaging, which has a major environmental impact and must be addressed from the perspective of the 3Rs: Reduction of consumption, Reuse of products and materials, and Recycling of waste. 

Ihobe, the Basque Government’s Public Environmental Management Company responsible for promoting and supporting the European Week for Waste Reduction, offers interested stakeholders a support service to make the registration process as easy as possible. Organizations only need to provide a brief description of their action. The rest of the process is managed by Ihobe. 

Among all the applications submitted in the Basque Country, the best initiatives will be selected and recognized. In addition, the selected projects will be proposed as candidates for the European award.

 

The deadline to register actions free of charge to participate in the campaign is open until November 12

Public administrations and organizations, associations and NGOs, companies and industries, educational centers, and citizens can register their actions until November 12. The registered activity must take place on at least one of the days of the Week (between November 18 and 26, 2023, both inclusive). The activities must be non-profit, and in the case of an event, entry must be free. Furthermore, it is essential that the action focuses on at least one of the Week’s topics: waste reduction at source, reuse and preparation for reuse, waste separation and recycling, cleanup actions, or this year’s theme (packaging). 

Over the 10 years of this project, the Basque Country has achieved four award-winning initiatives and six finalists among the approximately 16,000 presented each year across Europe. 

 

Let's Clean up Euskadi and the #WhyOverPackaging challenge

In addition to this work, in an activity mainly aimed at educational centers in the Basque Country, groups of volunteers will carry out joint cleanups to raise awareness about the problem of littering, as part of the European initiative Let's Clean up Europe, replicated in the Basque Country, which has its own methodology to ensure best practices in all aspects. 

Likewise, during the week, the #WhyOverPackaging challenge will take place on social media, consisting of posting images of unnecessary packaging and tagging the @EWWR2023 account. The goal of this challenge is to raise awareness about the problem of excessive packaging, encouraging the search for sustainable solutions by involving the community in discussion and action. 

The European Week for Waste Reduction aims to raise awareness about waste reduction, reuse of products, and recycling strategies for materials, as well as about related European Union and Member State policies; to highlight the work carried out by participants; to mobilize and encourage European citizens to focus on key action topics; and to strengthen the capacities of stakeholders by providing them with specific communication and training tools.

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