Reuse of Waste through Arts and Crafts (WasteArt) No. Est-Lat 65

Population increase, economic development and materialistic innovations increase demand for Earth’s finite resources. Human not only produce low-value waste, but also through innovations, such as microplastics, pollute ecosystems, thus damaging their own livelihood. Waste management is especially a topical problem due to the increase of global population and its consumption habits that lead to serious environmental problems. In the European Union (EU), only 40% of waste is recycled or reused. According to Eurostat data, the situation in Latvia and Estonia is less pleasing and shows around 20% of waste recycling. Most of the waste is landfilled or incinerated. The 7th EU Environmental Action Programme sets the following priorities: to reduce the amount of waste generated; to maximize recycling and re-use; to limit incineration to non-recyclable materials and to phase out landfilling to non-recyclable and non-recoverable waste. Both countries still have a lot to do to fulfil the waste policy of EU and one of the steps is to raise public awareness and understanding of the problem.

Objective

The main objective of the WasteArt project is to increase the awareness and change people’s habits towards more environmentally friendly behaviour concerning the waste reduction, re-use, and recycling (Waste 3R). WasteArt will use the capacity of contemporary art and the diversity of artistic practices to increase public awareness of the vast amounts of waste produced by human daily activities; as well as through the introduction of Waste Audit approach the WasteArt project will promote the Waste 3R at kindergartens and schools.

Activities

To reach the main objective, the project team will implement the following activities:

• Artistic creative Reuse Campaign “NOT out of sight, NOT out of mind” is aimed at general public. It will use the capacity of contemporary art and the diversity of artistic practices to increase public awareness towards waste produced by human activities. As a part of this activity, project partners will develop traveling art exhibition “NOT out of sight, NOT out of mind”, containing of 14 artworks developed by artists from Estonia, Latvia and abroad. The exhibition will showcase artists’ interpretation of the waste problem to increase public awareness of consumer material waste issues and resource efficiency. The artworks will travel as a joint exhibition and will be displayed in public locations across six places in Latvia and Estonia. Each opening in a new place will be marked by an open communication event.

• Campaign “Waste Audit and 3R” will target kindergartners, school-children, and school staff. It will engage education institutions in using the Waste 3R approach, thus promoting the sustainable use of natural resources and reduction of waste. This objective will be achieved by developing and implementing a waste audit across 24 kindergartens and schools by addressing the causes not consequences of the problem.

Project duration: August 2018 – January 2021

Leading partner: Foundation “Institute for Environmental Solutions”

Partners: Mittetulundusühing Tipu Looduskool (MTL); Põlva Vallavalitsus (until 01.12.2018 Mooste KülalisStuudio MTÜ); Vidzemes plānošanas regions (VPR); Võru Vallavalitsus (VV); SIA “ZAAO”

Project Manager: Guna Dātava; guna.datava@videsinstituts.lv; +371 26568947

Founding programme: European Regional Development Fund, Interreg V-A Estonia – Latvia (Est-Lat) Programme

Co-funding: project partners

Budget: Overall project budget is 344 452.87 EUR, ERDF contribution – 292 784.92 EUR