Beach campaign primes the public about posidonia residues

23 September 2011Three municipalities in southern Italy have partnered with the LIFE Environment project, P.R.I.M.E. – Posidonia Residues Integrated Management for Eco-Sustainability (LIFE09 ENV/IT/000061) – to raise public awareness of the problems linked to the management of Posidonia oceanica residues on beaches. Every year coastal communities in Puglia must collect and send to landfill thousands of tonnes of this foul-smelling type of seagrass, a costly process that also requires the use of heavy machinery, with potentially adverse environmental impacts.

In July and August, the municipalities of Mola di Bari (Bari), Ugento (Lecce) and Torre Canne (Brindisi), in collaboration with the environmental association, Legambiente, each staged one-day events on selected beaches to highlight the work of the P.R.I.M.E. LIFE project. The aim of the project is to show how it is possible to reduce the environmental impact and disposal costs related to the removal of beached residues, principally through the composting and reuse of the collected biomass.

As part of the awareness-raising campaign, an exhibition area was set up on each of the selected beaches - Porticciolo Portecchia (Mola di Bari) on 26 July; Lido Posidone (Ugento), 28 July; and Eden and La Zanzara beaches (Torre Canne), 01 August. Inside this area, visiting adults and children could see for themselves the first compost made from posidonia, read about the ongoing LIFE project and pick up project dissemination materials and merchandise (e.g. caps, bookmarks and t-shirts). They could also admire work made by artists using posidonia and watch the Egagropoli jugglers performing with balls of the seagrass residue.

The beneficiary says that the beach events attracted a lot of interest from participants of all ages: “Thanks to to the P.R.I.M.E. project, these people have learned to recognise the posidonia residues not as an evil-smelling waste, but as a potential resource.”

For additional information on this communication campaign and the results of the P.R.I.M.E, project, please visit the website: www.lifeprime.eu

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New publication out! Best LIFE Environment Projects 2010

21 September 2011The EU Member States represented on the LIFE Committee and the European Commission's LIFE Unit have announced the Best LIFE Environment Projects 2010. The results of the selection, as approved by the LIFE Committee members in the spring of 2011, are the 13 projects featured in this publication. These projects represent the most recent successful LIFE Environment projects in terms of their contribution to immediate and long-term environmental, economic and social improvements; their degree of innovation and transferability; their relevance to policy; and their cost-effectiveness.

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Greater expectations for LIFE+ 2011 European Week for Waste Reduction

09 September 2011Following growing success in 2009 and 2010, the third and final phase of the LIFE+ Information & Communication campaign, the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR), will take place on 19-27 November 2011. The 2011 ‘Week’ will involve public authorities and a wide variety of project sponsors (government, communities, school groups or NGOs) from across the EU. With 524 kg of municipal waste generated on average per person in Europe (2008 Eurostat), the aim is to raise awareness of ways of reducing waste and to promote changes in production and consumption patterns.

The LIFE+ project was initiated by a group of five project partners: ADEME France, (the project beneficiary), ACR+ – Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling and for sustainable Resource management (European network, Secretariat), ARC (Catalonia, Spain), LIPOR (Greater Porto, Portugal) and IBGE (Brussels, Belgium).

During last year’s campaign, over 4 300 awareness raising actions were successfully implemented in 24 EU Member States. According to a press release from French partner ADEME, the aim in 2011 is to surpass this 2010 figure  – which for France, should see more than 2 000 waste prevention efforts nationally.

Meanwhile, across the EU, the 2011 campaign will focus on the various stages of a product cycle, ranging from production and consumption to re-use. The overall aim is to inform the greatest number possible of Europeans about the simple actions that can be taken up in everyday life to help contribute to waste reduction efforts. These actions are focused on one or several of the following five themes: Too much waste – Better production – Better consumption – A longer life for products – Less waste thrown away.

A complete list of the 2011 ‘organisers and actions’ can be found on the EWWR website. At national level, EWWR 2011 will take place in Andorra, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and the Dominican Republic.

Meanwhile at regional and local level, the Week is being organised in the three Belgian regions (Brussels-Capital, Flanders, Walloon), as well as the Styrian region of Austria, many parts of Spain (Asturias, Catalonia, País Vasco, Navarra, Valencia) and the United Kingdom (London, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the cities of Belfast and Warrington, and the region of Buckinghamshire), along the Sarajevo Canton (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and the Brazilian region of Minas Gerais.