MILAN – Doing more with less. This is the theme of the European Week for Waste Reduction, which runs from 21 November to 29 November. The aim is to promote a culture in which less and less materials are used to deliver the same level of functionality to the user. Essentially, this means shifting from products to services and increasing the efficiency of the use of materials and resources.

Dematerialisation

This means replacing products with services where possible, sharing and borrowing products that you don’t need on a daily or exclusive basis, and organising service groups to use a single item. We can already see many examples of this process in our daily lives: from car pooling, which replaces buying an individual car, to Italy’s social streets sharing initiative. Another aspect of dematerialisation is increasing the efficiency of material use: reusing products that last longer, using more intelligent packaging, printing on both sides in the office, and using energy-saving lamps, or, even better, LED lights. 

Sponsors in Italy

In Italy, the “Week” is sponsored by a  national organising committee that includes: The Italian National Commission for UNESCO (CNI) as a permanent member, the Ministry of the Environment and Protection of the Land and Sea, Utilitalia, the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI), the Metropolitan City of Turin, the Metropolitan Capital City of Rome, the Italian environmental association Legambiente, the Italian Computer Association (AICA), the Italian environmental education company E.R.I.C.A. Soc. Coop. and the environmental newsletter Eco dalle Città. The 2015 event is endorsed by the European Parliament, with the contribution of the Ministry of the Environment and Protection of the Land and Sea, the packaging consortium CONAI and the six packaging recycling consortia: CIAL (aluminium), COMIECO (cellulose), COREPLA (plastic), COREVE (glass), RICREA (steel) and RILEGNO (wood).

by editorial staff